PONY EXPRESS RIDE 2007
The
Bracelin/Bratcher 1000
The next Pony
Express Ride is scheduled for 2007 and will be billed
as "The
Bracelin/Bratcher 1000 " in memory
and honor of Pony Express Riders Bill Bracelin
and Dottty Bracherand their battles with breast
cancer. See Bill’s
and Dotty's Stories.
The venue
will change for 2007. Traditionally,
we’ve ridden three
relay legs a day. This
involved packing up and
moving each
morning at O’Dark
Thirty. We’d travel
300 miles over the course
of the day. To make
our scheduled stops on
time, we
very often were required
to use interstates. At
the end of the day, we’d
all drag into a motel,
jump into the pool, wash
our bikes and fall into
bed exhilarated, but exhausted
to the bone.
In 2007, the Pony Express Rides will
morph into a Pony Express community that has
a home base for five nights and five days.
Four of those days will involve 250 mile riding
days on the beautiful winding roads found in
California’s Gold Country,
its Vineyards, and mountains. Our home
base will be Lake Frances RV Resort in Dobbins,
CA.
www.lakefrancisrv.com
Lake Frances RV
Resort has RV spaces with full hook-ups,
cabin camping and beautiful tent sites. It
also has its own village which together we
will transform into a Pony Express Way Station,
a place where we gather to break bread, laugh,
learn, recreate and continue our mission.
As
Pony Express Riders,
we have committed ourselves
to putting breast cancer
into the history books. You
will often hear
us say,
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“We
will not
give up,
be turned back,
nor stop
riding hard
until Breast Cancer is
history!”
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We mean it. But,
why not honor our pledges during September,
one of the most beautiful weather months
in the Sierra-Nevada region which is also
one of the most scenic areas in the United
States!
To participate
in Pony Express Ride 2007 – The Bracelin/Bratcher
1000, one has to make two commitments. A
rider commits to becoming a member of the
Pony Express Community by
registering and
lodging on site at the Lake Frances Resort.
Additionally, each Pony Express Rider is
required to raise and submit in advance a
minimum of $1000. Proceeds from the
2007 event will go to two beneficiaries.
Lake
Frances Resort is owned and operated
by Environmental Alternatives, a 501(c)3
charity that exists to provide foster care
services for children all over Northern
California. All proceeds from Lake
Frances’ operations go 100% to Environmental
Alternatives. Lake Frances is working hard
with WMF, Inc. to provide a lodging and
meal plan program that is extremely affordable
knowing that Pony Express Riders take on
most or all of their own expenses to participate. As
a result of their work and efforts on the
Riders’ behalf, 25% of the 2007 proceeds
will go to Environmental Alternatives to
support their foster care services. Whereas
75% of the proceeds will go to the Susan
G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc
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Throughout the
Pony Express Rides, we stop to pass the medallion.
the medallion is made up of four parts.
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One
horseshoe honors our survivors; a second
horseshoe represents hope for a future
free of breast cancer; then there is
the ring of memory. In the center of
the medallion rests the heart, bearing
a relief of a one breasted woman archer
aiming for a cure. |
