Get Involved

Be a part of our cross-continental bike ride against cancer! Get involved by riding with us, volunteering your help, or donating to our selected charity, the Lance Armstrong Foundation. You can also help by sponsoring our riders financially or in kind.

• Donate
• How to donate
• Why Lance Armstrong Foundation
• Ride
• Cost
• Training
• Team
• Volunteer
• Be our sponsor

Donate

Please donate (instructions below)! 100% of proceeds will benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation. In LAF's able hands, your donations will provide tools and support for people with cancer. For more information about LAF and its programs, visit their website or call them at 1-512-236-8820.

Your donation is tax deductible. Lance Armstrong Foundation is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Click here to learn about tax deductions for charitable contributions in the U.S.

Click here to read a letter from Lance (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

Your donations to LAF are non-refundable — donate wisely.

We'll acknowledge your donations and will permit your use of the BikeCoastToCoast.org logo if you wish to mention us on your website, in your blog, or in other publications.

How to donate

• Donate online using a credit card: http://www.livestrong.org/grassroots/PedalAgainstCancer/

• To donate by check:

  1. Print and fill out the donation form (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) - instructions are on the form.
  2. Fill in our grassroots Participant Name: Maksim Kalashnikov (LAF has our event registered under Maksim's name)
  3. Fill in our grassroots Participant ID: 171194417
  4. Make the check payable to Lance Armstrong Foundation
  5. Mail the form with your check to:
         Lance Armstrong Foundation
         National Mail Processing Center
         P.O. Box 6003
         Albert Lea, MN 56007-6603
         USA

• To make a pledge, contact us directly. A pledge is a commitment to a future donation, perhaps conditioned upon the attainment of a goal by a rider.

LAF will issue you a receipt for tax purposes via the Web, e-mail, and/or regular mail.

Please note that many companies will match their employees' donations. Most companies have matching-gift paperwork that requires Tax ID information and/or signatures from LAF. Send your company's paperwork with the donation checks; LAF will fill out and return the paperwork to the company.

Why did we pick the Lance Armstrong Foundation?

Because LAF is one of the few charities that satisfied our set of criteria:

• Support current patients with all types of cancer.
• Be a nationally recognized charity.
• Meet or exceed the generally accepted standards of efficiency, capacity, and accountability. National charity watchdog organizations like Charity Navigator and Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance give LAF strong marks for performance.
• Provide support and advice to grassroots fundraisers like BikeCoastToCoast.org.
• Have a strong connection to cycling.

Ride with us

We would like you to pedal with us in support of people with cancer. We realize that the ride, scheduled to last about 50 days, will be hard to fit into your busy schedule. Therefore, come join us for a portion of the trip. Every rider will sign a liability release. Learn more about the ride and drop us a line if you want to join us on the road. Below is some additional information.

Cost

All riders are responsible for covering their own costs. Your expenses will depend on several factors:

• The length of your ride.
• Your transportation to and from the ride.
• Your equipment costs. See the Gear section for details.
• Meals and accommodations. See the Meals and lodging section.
• Incidentals, such as bike maintenance and repair.

Training

• You must be in top cycling shape. This means you must be able to ride up to 100 miles per day while carrying all of you gear on your bike.
• More importantly, your bike and gear must be very well broken in and comfortable on long distance rides. See our About the Ride page for details.
• We are organizing a 250-mile training ride from Boston to New York City in mid-May 2007. Contact Maksim if you'd like to participate. Maksim has done the ride three times, so you'll be in good hands. This time around, however, we'll take a new, longer, harder, but more scenic route.

Team

So far, we have a team of four riders committed to riding coast to coast. Additionally, some of our friends have expressed interest in joining us for a few days on the New York - Washington or the Lake Tahoe - San Francisco legs of the ride.

Volunteer

Here are just some of the things you can help us with: organize a publicity event, fundraise for us, link to our webpage from yours to drive web traffic, and so on. Be creative. If you can offer any help, please let us know. We really appreciate your help!

Be our sponsor

For sponsorship opportunities contact Maksim.