12.02.2012
Help!
I want to reach you at your most venerable. I want you to
know, to understand what we at The Ride Of Silence are up against.
Understand, this ride is celebrating its 10th anniversary
this coming May 2013. The ride started in May of 2003 as a desperate act of
frustration at the status quo, namely, how cyclists are second class citizens.
How, as cyclists, we've been willing to take whatever scraps the city we live
in, gave us. How we are not a priority, or even on the list, though THOUSANDS
are killed every year.
This ride as grown far beyond anyone's imagination. No one
knew the nerve we were striking, or how the problems in Dallas are the same in
Boston, Albuquerque, Des Moines, or Savannah: Trying to stay alive on two
wheels! But we are all deeply thankful and appreciative for every thought and
action that has gone it to The Ride Of Silence.
Now I am asking for your help to keep The Ride, and its
primary resource, the web site, going.
Like a ship that is continuously at sea, our site is showing
major signs of wear and tear. It needs to be over hauled. But, organizing a
free bike ride around the world yields less income than the results of our
work.
This is what our computer person, Ben (a Ride Of Silence
organizer himself) explained to us tonight: "I had one of my software
engineers look at the site to give me an estimate of the workload involved in
renovating it... he rolled his eyes and say 'there is a lot, a lot of work to
do. 2-3 months of full time work for an expert designer.' Especially if we want
to expand the forms, functionalities implement SEO, forum and other shop or
donate features. Our rough estimate, we are looking at a ceiling of USD
10,000-15,000, if we outsource it to India."
That is an unbelievable amount of money to us. Unfathomable.
Can't even picture it. Now I come to you.
Can you help? Would you help? Anything you could do would be
VERY appreciated as we want to keep the site going so we can help you and
others like you, grow. So The Ride Of Silence can continue to spread the word
of sharing the road.
Can you help us help the site? We're asking, please, donate.
"Give the GIFT to ROS - so that we can keep our site
working for you."
Please?
Thank you!
Chris Phelan
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