Cycling Club In Seattle Raises Funds for Flood Victims

The Cascade Bicycle Club  has begun to raise money for flood relief for Seattle-to-Portland bike-route cities of Centralia and Chehalis. Flood damage could top $1 billion in the wake of the devastating flooding that swept through the region last week.

Cascade is pledging $2,500 in matching funds for flood relief through the Centralia United Way. You can donate online now, or send it to:

United Way of Lewis County, attn: CBC Flood Relief, 450 NW Pacific Avenue, Chehalis, WA 98532.

In a letter to members, Ayers wrote:

Dear Cyclist:

By now you have probably seen or read about the devastating flood damage in Centralia, Chehalis, and many of the smaller towns in southwest Washington. This is the route of Cascade's well-known Group Health Seattle to Portland bike ride. We rely on the hospitality of these communities to house, feed and support thousands of riders year after year. Clearly, these communities help make STP one of our most popular events.

While we provide donations and payments to many charities and groups along the way for helping out with STP, they need our help NOW. Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes and businesses and are now returning to find the entire contents unusable or destroyed beyond repair by the water and mud.

Just imagine this happening to your home. What about food? Fresh water? A place to sleep? A shower? Whatever happened to the toothbrushes, soap, bandaids, coffee? Any amount we can give will be welcome.

Cascade is pledging $2,500 in matching funds for flood relief. With your donation, we can turn this into $5,000 or more. We are working with the Centralia United Way who is waiving processing and administration fees so all donations go directly to relief efforts on the ground.

Please join us in giving a helping hand to the people of southwest Washington. You can give two ways:

1. donate on-line now or
2. send a check payable to:
   United Way of Lewis County
   attn: CBC Flood Relief
   450 NW Pacific Avenue
   Chehalis, WA 98532

This is an amazing effort for a worthy cause, and I'm going to do my own small part:

Gene Bisbee, of Biking Bis, gave me the heads-up about this story and has sent out a challenge:

I'll donate $5 to the CBC flood relief for each of the first 20 bloggers who put a link to this post, and mention STP and flood relief, on their blog by noon (PST) Wednesday. Please leave a comment or send me an email that you've done so; I'll also check Technorati.

I get paid on Friday and will send a $20 contribution of my own.

If you are a cyclist, especially if you are a cyclist who enjoys taking long rides, and participating in Cycling Family Fun Rides/Cycling Tour events that occur all year long in every state of the Union, please consider making any contribution you can afford this Holiday Season.