One Day to Go! ... Tree

Everybody is starting to arrive at the hotel! We can't believe we are FINALLY here!!! Susan and I have been organizing our team's effort since last October and I've been training since November. It is hard to imagine the ride starts tomorrow after all this work.

The ride has doubled in size since last year! We had about 50 riders last year and this year there are close to 100! Team Minnesota is back as well as Team Maine (for those new to the blog this year, those are two teams we became very close to last year)! I had a wake up text at 0715 this morning from Blaine of Team Maine telling me they already broke down on their way to NYC. They had to replace the alternator and a belt on their suv. I met the three riders from Ireland, too! I'm nestled in the corner right now of rider registration (fancy, huh?!). It is pouring here in the northeast right now but apparently it is going to be clear with a high of 75 tomorrow! Geoff's Yankees game may be rained out tonight though :(.

The Minnesota paramedic student Colleen Doyle has put together a great looking power point of the memorial inductees including personal info and photos. Unfortunately, shortly after the ride last year, there was a paramedic killed in Maine, Allan Parsons. Team Maine is riding in honor of him. His parents and three children will be at this year's Memorial Service. Allan died when the ambulance he was in was hit by a drunk driver, he was caring for a patient in the back. There are going to be 73 (!) total inductees (there were 17 last year). Blaine was written up in the local newspaper: http://www.sunjournal.com/story/255418-3/bsection/Face_Time_Blaine_Rackliff/

Rider registration is here at the hotel run by our very own Susan Erwin with Dave Page and the Minnesota paramedic students. His students put together a biographical poster of each of this year's inductees including photos. As you walk down the hall, reading about each of the inductees, your eyes begin to sting and you feel yourself starting to choke up. Putting faces to a long list of names including the family they are leaving behind and how they enjoyed living their life is quite powerful. Life is extremely precious and you often forget, for many reasons, how dangerous this job is. His students took personalizing the memorial for the bike ride to an even bigger level -- each participant was sent a (livestrong type) blue bracelet with EMS Memorial Bike Ride imprinted on it prior to arriving to NYC. Every participant was also paired with a memorial inductee and their name is written on their particular bracelet.