Another successful ride for the Long Reach Long Riders

The Long Reach Long Riders are very happy to announce the completion of their 8th annual charity ride. The ride, which benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The ESTA Foundation’s Behind the Scenes program, began in Billings, Montana on July 2nd and ended back in Billings on July 9th . This year the LRLR raised over $36,500.00 bringing the total raised since they started riding in 2004 to just under $300,000.00.

The top ten things  the 14 riders, 5 passengers and 2 chase cars did this year were:

1) Rode 2,114 miles in 8 days.

2) Looked on as two riders asked their passengers to marry them. A first for the LRLR. (Both passengers said yes!)

3) Did not encounter a single drop of rain. Another LRLR first.

4) Experienced no bike mechanical failures. Yet another LRLR first.

5) Saw numerous wildlife including Bison, Elk, Brown Black and Grizzly Bear, Deer, a Coyote (although some argue that it was wolf), Bald and Golden Eagles, several Osprey in their nests and two unidentified animals that ran in front of, but did NOT get hit by, Greg’s bike.

6) Changed altitude by over 7,000 ft. including a trip over Bear Tooth Pass at 10,947 ft.

7) Visited three National Parks and a National Monument.

8) Crossed umpteen flooded rivers and passed more snow covered mountains than they could count.

9) Passed out over 1,000 kazoos.

10) Raised awareness of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The ESTA Foundation’s Behind The Scenes program at numerous gas stations, restaurants, hotels, scenic overlooks and even while waiting for construction traffic to clear.

The Long Reach Long Riders would like to thank everyone who helped make this year’s ride a resounding success. Donations are being accepted up to July 31, 2011. Please visit www.lrlr.org for more information.

The 9th annual (2012) Long Reach Long Rider charity ride will take place in the Pacific Northwest and begin on August 4, 2012. Please check the website in the coming months for route, registration and donation information.

Long Reach Long Riders Ride Again in July

The Long Reach Long Riders are happy to announce the dates and route for their 8th annual charity motorcycle ride. The 2011 ride will begin on July 1 in Billings, Montana and wind through some of the wildest landscapes in the United States before finishing back in Billings on July 9th. Along the way the group will visit a number of National Parks including Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Craters of the Moon and Glacier. Old Faithful and Mammoth Hot Springs are two of the many sites to be visited, and the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway and The Highway to the Sun are a couple of the many magnificent roads that will be ridden during the 2011 ride.

What was supposed to be a one time event in 2004 has become an eagerly anticipated annual trip. The ride supports two charities: Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The ESTA Foundation’s Behind the Scenes Program. To date the LRLR have raised over $250,000.0.

Greg Williams, who shares 2011 Ride Marshal duties with his wife Alice Neff noted, “Last year’s ride was spectacular. The Sierra Nevada Mountains are incredibly beautiful and the ride up the Pacific Coast Highway was breathtaking. Loren Shreiber set a very high bar with last year’s ride but I do believe this year’s route will be even better.”

For more information about the Long Reach Long Riders, to join the ride or make a donation, please visit www.lrlr.org.

Help Fight Breast Cancer by Buying Gel

We are half way through October which just happens to be Breast Cancer Awareness Month. As an industry, how can we help support the cause. Outside of the industry, there are a number of ways to help, but what about within the industry?

In steps Apollo Design.  During the month of October, Apollo Design is donating a portion of their sales of pink gel to the Vera Bradley Foundation to help fight breast cancer. Everyone can use a little pink in their life.  Help support the fight against Breast Cancer by purchasing some pink gel today!  It’s as easy as contacting you local Apollo dealer and saying give me PINK!

Last Chance to Order Behind the Scenes Holiday Cards

This is your last chance, you only have a couple of days left in August to order your Behind the Scenes Holiday Cards.  With the purchase of these cards you are doing to great things. 1, supporting our injured brothers and sisters in the industry and 2,showing your friends, relatives and colleague that you care about them during the holiday season.

Head over the the ESTA Foundations website NOW and order your holiday cards. All proceeds go to Behind the Scenes, a charity providing financial support to entertainment technology professionals who are ill or injured.

HURRY, orders close September 1, 2010!

Long Reach Long Riders Complete 7th Ride For Charity

Each Time I read or hear about the Long Reach Long Riders, I want to buy a bike. Not just because it would be awesome to do some of these rides, but also to contribute to a worth while cause while still having some fun.  Of course you don’t NEED a bike to contribute, but as I have heard…”You’d be cooler if you did”. Here is more from Bill Sapsis.

The Long Reach Long Riders (LRLR) completed their 7th annual charity motorcycle ride on July 31st at Alice’s Restaurant in Woodside, California. The ride, which began at The Presidio in San Francisco raised over $38,000.00 for The ESTA Foundation’s Behind the Scenes Program and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The LRLR have raised over $250,000.00 since starting their charity rides in 2004.

Loren Schreiber, one of this year’s ride marshals commented, “From San Francisco and back again, the route took us from twisted, cliff-side roads with azure seas below, through winding giant redwood canyons, around ancient volcanoes, down the sheer face of the Sierra Nevada and up again among Yosemite’s indigo lakes and the hunched shoulders of Half Dome and El Capitan. We crossed over high mountain passes and low valley plains. We wandered down narrow country lanes with only the ground squirrels noting our passing. On the scale of natural pulchritude, this ride was off the charts!”

On any given day there were up to 25 bikes on the road and their riders hail from 8 states, Canada, Great Britain and Sweden. LRLR founding member Greg

Williams noted “I’m always amazed at how quickly our riders’ disparate personalities gel in the face of common beautiful experiences and a shared sense of mission. This year was no different, and certainly ranks among my favorites…so far!

Next year the ride will start in Billings, Montana and wind through some of the most scenic National Parks in the country before returning to Billings. The following year (2012) will find the LRLR enjoying the lakes and forests of the upper mid-west.

Donations for this year’s ride are being accepted up to September 1, 2010.

For more information on making a donation, joining a future ride or sponsoring a rider, please visit www.lrlr.org.

Update: Helping Titus Realize His Dream – Call for Support

Over a month ago, Richard Cadena, the Editor of PLSN Magazine and Electron Magician put a call out for help his friend Titus in Nigeria. Mr. Cadena has organized a fund raising campaign to purchase an Apple MacBook for Titus to help him complete and continue his dreams of opening a production company in Nigeria.  The audio engineering classes that Titus is taking requires an Apple notebook to complete class assignments.

The goal is to raise $1100 USD to purchase the new MacBook for Titus.  Mr. Cadena setup a ChipIn campaign to help raise money.  The first ChipIn campaign that Mr. Cadena setup raised $350 dollars.  This is a good start, but Titus and Mr. Cadena still need help to raise the remaining $750 dollars.

Mr. Cadena started a new ChipIn campaign to raise the remaining $750 dollars.  Your help and support would greatly be appreciated! Any donation on your part would be greatly welcome. I have already pledged my support by donating to this worth while cause, please join me and Mr. Cadena in helping bring a bit of much needed technology to a student in need.  Below is the ChipIn widget to show how much has already been raised and how much is still needed to reach the $750 dollar goal. Again, any support would be greatly appreciated.  Why not donate the cost of one cup of coffee for the day?  If enough people donate just a bit, Titus and Mr. Cadena can reach their goal.

Call For Help: Give Titus Your Support

Just like Jim, I too believe that our future belongs in the hands of the up and coming students and technicians.  It is a real shame to waste such a talent that a less fortunate student has due to the lack of funding and/or basic technology available to them.

Richard Cadena has a good friend, Titus in Nigera that has just finished his engineering degree.  Titus’s dream is to open a production company in Nigera to bring the live arts to those around him. Titus recently enrolled in an audio production program in Cape Town but is in need of a Apple Notebook to complete his work in the class.

Many of Mr. Cadena’s friends in the entertainment lighting industry have offered older G4 Apple Notebooks, but alas, they will not work for the programs that Titus needs to run for his class.  He is in need of a newer Intel processor Apple Notebook.

Mr. Cadena has started a fundraiser to collect money to purchase a new Apple Notebook for Titus to complete his Audio Production Class and begin his lifelong dream of starting a Production Company. Mr. Cadena and I are asking for your help to donate to this very worth while cause. Any little bit will help! Mr. Cadena has setup a fundraiser through Chipin.com and I have added the widget to this post.  Please, let’s help Titus!

Long Reach Long Riders Saddle Up For 2010

With this past summers ride down and gone in the east, the Long Reach Long Riders are planning their 6th annual ride on the west coast.  I was sad to have to miss this years ride as it went straight through my back door.  Here is a little more info from the 2009 ride on the east coast:

The 2009 ride raised over $42,000.00 for the ESTA Foundation’s Behind the Scenes program and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, making it the second largest amount raised to date. The combined LRLR total raised since the first ride in 2004 has now exceeded $200,000.00

The participants; 18 motorcycles and as many as three chase vehicles, enjoyed a weeklong ride that took them over mountains, past lush farmland and sweeping vistas and through a number of National and State Parks. The 2,500 mile ride, which began in Richmond, Virginia and ended in Dahlonega, Georgia, visited 5 states and rode on many scenic highways including the Skyline Drive, the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Cherohala Skyway. The group also tempted fate by riding some of the most famous twisting mountain roads in the USA including The Snake in Shady Valley, Tennessee and the Dragon’s Tail in Robbinsville, North Carolina.

This year’s riders and chase car drivers hail from 13 states, the District of Columbia, British Columbia, Canada and London, England.

So are you pumped up about joining the ride?  Here is more information on the 7th annual Long Reach Long Ride.

The Long Reach Long Riders announce their seventh annual charity motorcycle ride.  The ride, which benefits the ESTA Foundation’s Behind The Scenes program and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, begins in San Francisco on July 24, 2010.

The ride, which began as one time event back in 2004, has raised more than $200,000.00 over the past six years.  “We were just a bunch of technicians looking for a fun way to attend a conference”, commented Bill Sapsis, one of the original ride organizers. “Who knew it would turn out like this?” Greg Williams, another founding member added, “The group was so much fun to ride with we just had to do it again.  We’ve seen a lot of really beautiful country in the past six years and this years ride will offer a lot more as well as some of the best riding roads in the west.”

The riders will assemble at the Presidio in San Francisco on the morning of July 24th and head north into the Napa Valley.  Over the next seven days the group will head through Eureka and then west to Truckee and Lake Tahoe.  They’ll ride through Yosemite and down to Hollister, CA, the birthplace of the outlaw biker legend in the US.  Then it’s over to the coast and back up to San Francisco via the legendary Pacific Coast Highway, arriving on July 31st.

As in previous years, anyone who wants to ride with us is more than welcome, either as  a ‘day tripper’ or for the entire ride.  For more information on the route, joining the ride or making a donation, please visit www.lrlr.org.

Long Reach Long Rides Meet and Exceed Goals

The Long Reach Long Riders announce the successful completion of their 6th annual charity motorcycle ride. The 2009 ride raised over $42,000.00 for the ESTA Foundation’s Behind the Scenes program and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, making it the second largest amount raised to date. The combined LRLR total raised since the first ride in 2004 has now exceeded $200,000.00 Donations for the 2009 ride will be accepted until September 1, 2009.

The participants; 18 motorcycles and as many as three chase vehicles, enjoyed a weeklong ride that took them over mountains, past lush farmland and sweeping vistas and through a number of National and State Parks. The 2,500 mile ride, which began in Richmond, Virginia and ended in Dahlonega, Georgia, visited 5 states and rode on many scenic highways including the
Skyline Drive, the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Cherohala Skyway. The group also tempted fate by riding some of the most famous twisting mountain roads in the USA including The Snake in Shady Valley, Tennessee and the Dragon’s Tail in Robbinsville, North Carolina.

This year’s riders and chase car drivers hail from 13 states, the District of Columbia, British Columbia, Canada and London, England. The ride was organized by Greg Williams, Alice Neff, and Moe and Christine Conn. The bikes represented were Harley Davidson (10), Honda (3), Kawasaki (2), BMW (1), Suzuki (1) and Vespa (1). The oldest bike on the trip was the 1987 K-75 BMW driven by Frank “Mr. Murphy” Stewart. The number of curves successfully navigated by the group exceeded 1,000.

Next year’s ride will start in San Francisco, Ca. For more information on the riders, joining the ride or making a donation, please visit www.lrlr.org.

Lights, Bikes and Charity… Oh My!

If you are into bike, lights and helping out your fellow man, you may want to check out the Long Reach Long Riders cross country charity ride. We aren’t talking about your huffy bike here, we are talking talking road hogs, choppers or any other name you can think of for motorcycles.

The goal of the annual cross county ride is to raise money for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the ESTA Foundation’s Behind the Scenes program, and to raise AIDS awareness within the entertainment technical community as well as having some fun.

The 2009 Charity Ride begins on July 31 in Richmond Virginia and head south over a course of 7 days that ends in Dahlonega Georgia. The ride has stops all along the way at various historical attractions, such as the Luray Caverns, the Barter Theatre, (The state theatre of Virginia), Cumerland Falls in Kyntuecky, the Clingman’s Dome and Mingus Mill in the national forest and part of the Blue Ridge Mountains within Tennessee.

To join the charity ride for 2009, make sure to meet all these requirements and to have your registration in no later then June 30, 2009. If you cannot make the ride this year, make sure to donate to either Behind the Scenes or Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids to help support your fellow actors, technicians, designers and other with in the entertainment industry.

For more information on the Long Reach Long Riders, visit their website at www.lrlr.org.