The Cycle4Haiti was a modest idea of, “a few staff members cycling to Galway to raise some funds for Haiti” that turned into a great fundraising success. Michael Dawson, CEO of The Gift Voucher Shop was one of the entrepreneurs that visited Haiti as part of the 2007 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the year programme. He had helped set up the Soul of Haiti Foundation with other members and was looking for a key fundraiser for the fast growing charity. After the earthquake in early 2010 the fundraising search became an absolute must.
On the May bank holiday weekend of 2010, 40 amateur cyclists took off to cycle 225km over two days and raised €40,000 for the Soul of Haiti Foundation. It was clear from the first training session that this was a cycle with a bit of a difference. You didn’t need to be a fantastic cyclist as you were minded every step of the way by the volunteers who cheered everyone along and met the cyclists at every pit stop to feed and water you!
The celebration night was a pivotal event, with awards for every participant and a fantastic party atmosphere. The great weekend was filmed every step of the way with the result being a documentary aired on Setanta Sports. As a result, there was a fantastic sense of togetherness and upon saying goodbye everyone was coming back next year with even more friends.
So with great promises of next year’s cycle being bigger, we set a very ambitious goal of 100 cyclists, cycling to fundraise €100,000 for the Soul of Haiti Foundation. This was over achieved with Companies pulling together and putting in Teams for the cycle. So 150 cyclists set off again on the May Bank holiday weekend this year and managed to raise a fantastic €126,000.
Each year, funds raised by Cycle4Haiti have gone directly to support the development of Soul of Haiti Foundation projects. The work is broken down into clearly defined projects please visit projects for more details.
Motivated by both the continued devastation in Haiti and the positive results that our efforts are having, we want to have at least 500 people join us on this year’s cycle on the 5th & 6th of May 2012. Not afraid of a challenge, we have set ourselves a target of raising in excess of €300k. This year’s cycle will be our biggest and most ambitious fundraising to date!
There will be three different starting points and pelotons on the 5th May from Dublin, Sligo and Cashel, all converging on Athlone for the first evening. The next morning, the 6th May one very big Peloton will leave for Galway city to arrive together.
Everyone is welcome and remember to register your interest early.
