I've have been volunteering at the Ride for Roswell with my co-workers for a few years starting prior to my diagnosis. The Ride draws 10,000 people for various length bike rides to raise money for cancer research. It truly hits home now.
The 2012 ride was yesterday and much to my surprise, Tyler joined me. Earlier in the week I had mentioned that I was going and he asked to come. I told him he could if he really wanted to, but I tried to talk him outof it. We had to be there at 5:00am which meant getting up really early and we would be there for at least a few hours. I had visions of a tired and bored boy that I'd have to entertain while trying to do my job. He made me promise to wake him up in the morning when he went to bed Friday night.
Saturday morning I snuck into his room at 4:00am, kissed him on the forehead and whispered "if you are going to come, now is the time." Up he popped. Darn. I stuffed my pockets with things to entertain him including his ipod and off we went.
Upon arrival, I had Tyler start with what I thought was the easiest job... stuffing goody bags for the riders.
By 5:15am he was back by my side and said the job was too hard. I was concerned.
My job was registering riders. As the riders started to come in, Tyler found a way to help. First, he became a runner bringing envelopes to have the minimum donation checked while those of us at the table explained the pieces of the rider packet. He also sealed envelopes that had extra donations and dropped them in the bin. Then he was asked to collect and remove stickers from the bins as we started to consolidate. He found his purpose and insisted on wearing the green volunteer t-shirt. He earned it.
Tyler was fantastic. He was moving, smiling, chatting everyone up and in control the whole time. After a few hours he came running up to me to ask if he could come next year. I told him I thought everyone would be disappointed if he didn't.
At 10:30am I told Ty it was time to go. He was disappointed and told me there was still more to do. What a kid! I convinced him that he had earned his volunteer lunch to get him out of the building. He was asleep as soon as we hit the road.
Last year, Dan joined me at the ride and he asked if it was difficult for me to be there. Treatment was still fresh at the time and my hair had just started to grow. Surprisingly, the ride last year wasn't hard.
This year it was which caught me off guard. I think the reason I had such a hard time is that I stayed in registration longer. Last year it was really cold which kept a lot of riders away so I left registration early to help out on the route. The last rides to start are the 8 and 3 mile routes. Guess who does those routes? The kids. They came with decorated shirts. They came with stickers on their helmets. They came with their piggy banks! The told us they were there because their mom died last year... or grandma... or an uncle. It was heartwarming and heartbreaking all at the same time. And, then to look out and see my own boy marching around so confident and wanting to help. It was an emotional day.
Tyler and I know where we'll be next year at 5:00am on a Saturday at the end of June.
