Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind - charity stationary cycle

CramCycle

"A charity stationary cycle to raise funds for the Irish Guide Dogs for the blind is taking place outside St Stephens green shopping centre on Friday the 13th of August from 1000-2400. We are looking for volunteers who are willing to cycle for an hour, stand with buckets or do even both.The cycle is open to all standards from beginner to any budding S0hay Elliott 's. Anyone looking for information please contact Colm or Briona at the following email addresses brionadarcy@gmail.com or realcolm@gmail.com''.

Got this from a friend of mine, its a great cause. A guide dog costs approximately 40,000 euro to train. As far as i know he is running it on two turbo trainers. I have volunteered for a bit of time over the day but anyone else is welcome to join or even if you could just mail it around so people walking by know why there is a couple of people sweating profusely in the area.

Moflojo

CramCycle wrote: »

A guide dog costs approximately 40,000 euro to train.

Is this true?!

Does the dog receive a BA or an MA after this much investment?

CramCycle

Moflojo wrote: »

Is this true?!

It is indeed, mentioned on another thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=60272873&postcount=1

The training is quite intense, involving special diets that affect the dogs bowel movements, follow up with instructors, breeding and selection, etc. The following link covers a little of what goes on:

http://www.guidedogs.ie/our_dogs/life_guidedog.php

with a link at the bottom for a word doc with even more info.

It costs 4.7million euro alone to keep the organisation running this year. 85% of this cost is met through fundraising and voluntary donations. All of their services are provided free of charge.

Like I said, a good cause, and any support will be greatly welcome.

The tax man

Moflojo wrote: »

Does the dog receive a BA or an MA after this much investment?

No they just receive a very grateful owner.

Moflojo

The tax man wrote: »

No they just receive a very grateful owner.

Meant nothing bad by it. The cost is comparable with going through 3rd level Education. That's a real eye-opener, had no idea it cost so much.

dory

Thanks for the info! It's a fantastic cause. I hope it goes very well for them.

CramCycle

Just boosting this up for the big day tomorrow. It will be starting at ten and I'll be doing 3 hours myself in the morning. If anyone is working or just hanging around town please come along at some time over the day to show support for a good cause.

Might have a spare bike over the day if anyone wants to hop on for awhile, no guarantees though.

CramCycle

Last boost for the day I swear, I'm just heading out the door to get on the bike at 10 in town.

Top of Grafton st. Red t shirts, good cause, enough said.

SubLuminal

Brilliant, you should hopefully get a few of the messengers on too for a bit perhaps, although there's an alleycat this avo so not sure who'll be where..

buffalo

I might try stick around for a while after picking up my jersey CC!

CramCycle

Good day in all, I alas left at 4 as i am a quitter

I was on the bike from 10 till 4. I got off for half an hour to repair a bike that was brought along. Ran upto MacDonaghs on Camden st to borrow a lock ring and get a tube. Think I should give them a big thumbs up. While I was there, the two guys were very helpful (maybe they seen the boards jersey lurking underneath my charity shirt). They were non stop with help for people walking in and out, even advising people where else they could get a bike online/LBS if what they had in stock did not suit, nice to see proper customer service again in the city. I also noticed alot of repeat custom as many of those who came in for repairs were recognised and greeted well, also a good sign. I'll be calling in there again to have a proper look around, service as always, makes a huge difference.

Cycle Superstore lent us 2 trainers for the day as well, alot of people actually thought we were sales people for TacX as we had 3 running there for most of the day. nice guys in there and glad they were willing to offer us the loan, so big thanks to them as well.

A few puppies in training came along which garnered more interest than the cyclists but you can't win them all

At the moment the day raised over 1800euro at last count, I'll post up the final tally when I get it from the organiser. It was a quiet day in town so I can only imagine how successful it would have been if it was busy.

The organiser was so pleased with the event that he is now considering organising a small sportif for the cause in the future, so cycling wins again.

There were a few pictures taken over the day so as soon as I get my hands on them, I will post them up.