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Brody
January 18th, 2010, 06:15 AM
I just got this email from Eric Ross. It is time to start planning for this year's WFTW event, so let's figure out what we can do to help out. I put Eric in contact with a couple of people who had contacts with the wounded veterans organizations earlier this year, so we should have a better turn out this year. Bill from Englewood Driveshaft also has good contacts and he is going to help out, too. FYI, last years WFTW run was a lot of fun and was one of the most well organized events that I have been to.

If you have access to organizations for wounded veterans or know of wounded veterans, or happen to be one yourself, please contact Molly and let her know. One of the things we ran into last year was we had more drivers than wounded vets. One of the purposes of these events is to show support for our troops and the veterans who have given so much and to get the wounded vets out on the trails.

And, BTW, it doesn't matter what YOU think of the Camel War or our government's policies. These folks are part of OUR armed forces and deserve our support. They have given a lot of themselves.

Hello WFTW folks!

It has been a while since we've spoken and it's been a busy fall and winter, but now that the new year has chimed in it's time to get out ducks in a row for the 2010 WFTW event.

For my part, I am gracefully bowing out of the lead role this year and Molly Houck has agreed to step up and take over the primary organizational responsibilities. It has been a pleasure leading the effort, but a combination of certainties and uncertainties this year make it difficult for me to continue to fill these shoes. I plan to remain an active member of the effort and look forward to seeing what we can do with the significant progress we have made.

Molly will be receiving this email along with all of the contact information, after which I highly recommend you contact her directly and let her know what you're up for this year. Molly has been volunteering with the VFW in Loveland the past few months and has gained their full support, and she also has insight into all of the work we did last year to make this happen. Molly and I are good friends and I have every confidence she will be a great leader.

Molly's email contact is:

molly.houck@gmail.com

She is also a moderator on COTTORA and Yotatech, and has been a member of a variety of 4WD organizations for decades.

I look forward to working with all of you this year to provide another fun and respectful event for our wounded veterans.

Regards,

Eric Ross

CR
January 18th, 2010, 08:32 AM
Thanks for posting Brody!
My father is the head of the Purple Heart Society for the Northern Colorado area.
I would love to get him out on the trails and I know there will be lots of Vets with the Purple Heart group that would love to get out.
I will be contacting Molly about this.

Brody
January 18th, 2010, 08:40 AM
Thanks CR! This is exactly the kind of connection we need. No dates for the run yet, but it will probably be about the same time this year as it was last year and also probably be in the Buena Vista area due to the profusion of trails around there.

Brody
January 20th, 2010, 04:28 PM
This is the latest email from Molly, who has taken over from Eric. Let us help her out with whatever we can do and show our support for the wounded veterans. I would also like to see a little more response to this thread. We have only gotten one person to reply. Surely we can't all be that complacent? That means totally lame, if you had problems with the wording...

Hello All,

I am Molly, and I am set to be heading up the Colorado WFTW 2010 Event this year.

Per suggestion I am now BCC'ing all of you. For now I think the best way to do this is for you to each to respond to me with your suggestions to my questions and then I will compile those suggestions and I will include those in a following email.

A few things:
Many of you may know this but i have a medical condition that currently prevents me from driving, and can take me down for about 5 days per month. So I am really going to need all of your help to get this event done. The good(?) news is that because of this condition I am at home a lot so I have time when I am feeling OK to take care of a lot of logistics!
I am looking for a new way for us to communicate other than just email. (However, currently email is our best option.) Ideally I'd love to use some forum space to do this. But I was hoping there was a forum that most of us already belonged to. As many of you already know the Nation-Wide WFTW website/forum has been taken down. I'll discuss that whole issue, and what happened later. So for now we as a state are on our own. I am trying to see if any other states have started their own forums. I don't know much about starting a forum (LOL, even though I mod a bunch of them), but frankly I doubt any of us wants to get another forum login and have another forum to track. I'm looking for suggestion here:
<ul>Are a lot of us on Colorado4x4.org? Not sure how they would take to making a section for us.
Same with Pirate.
Should we use some of our funds and start our own web site at the very least if not a forum? Is anyone willing to help with that?
</ul>Dates for the 2010 Event:
<ul>We did it on July 18th last year and that timing was great. But I want to get some feedback on that. So Again I am looking at the 2nd or 3rd weekend in July. (July 10th & 11th, or 17th & 18th)
</ul>Location: Buena Vista was GREAT in terms of amount of trails, room to stage and the BLM, USFS, and the town all working with us. However, the distance was tough. I think that really cut down on potential Wounded Veterans. In the interest of making this a great event again - I am still keen to choose BV, but this time with more planning (RSVP etc) especially when it comes to our special guests.
<ul>The only other location I can think of that might be viable for us would be the Idaho springs area. But this would be a start over in terms of researching the USFS, the BLM and town involvements. Thoughts?
</ul>Finances: I believe that our WFTW account (Which currently resides under the COTTORA club account) is somewhere around $800 for WFTW (I need to double check with account officers on that though) That is a GREAT chunk of change to help us with logistics, planning and hopefully this year Transportation for Wounded Veterans for our event!
What we need to start doing now:
<ul>Getting food and supply donations lined up. Many places such as Costco, Sam's Club etc decide their donation budget for the year now. We need to apply for it NOW, and from what I gather the budget is on a store by store basis. Most places require at least 1 month to make a decision on our application. I already have a Costco and Sam's Club I am working with. Anyone down south willing to get the information we need to apply to places down there? (They should have a contact and or an application for us to fill out) If we apply now, we have a much better chance of getting the maximum amount they can give, before it is all "donated away".
How to get more Active Duty, Veterans, and especially Wounded Veterans involved in our final event. This is where a web site just for us (or a forum) might help. We learned form last year we really need to have a way to have an RSVP. This will allow us to hopefully plan for transportation and maybe even lodging for these folks so they feel more comfortable committing.
</ul> So consider the above items and respond to me as you can! I am hoping to have our first team meeting in February, so finalize a lot of this. I'll have a few emails between you all before then to really pare down my thoughts and your suggestions, and maybe we'll even find an on-line home where we can all discuss this together!

Again, thank you for your interest and time in WFTW 2010.

Sincerely, -Molly Houck

molly.houck@gmail.com

Chris
January 20th, 2010, 05:32 PM
I am looking for a new way for us to communicate other than just email. (However, currently email is our best option.) Ideally I'd love to use some forum space to do this. But I was hoping there was a forum that most of us already belonged to. As many of you already know the Nation-Wide WFTW website/forum has been taken down. I'll discuss that whole issue, and what happened later. So for now we as a state are on our own. I am trying to see if any other states have started their own forums. I don't know much about starting a forum (LOL, even though I mod a bunch of them), but frankly I doubt any of us wants to get another forum login and have another forum to track

Molly, I hope you're checking this thread because I'd be happy to set up a forum/site strictly for WFTW or add it to our existing forums. Let me know how I can help.

WINKY
January 20th, 2010, 07:50 PM
im going on this if i can make it

Rob
January 20th, 2010, 10:10 PM
I can't commit just yet, but I'll know more the closer it gets.

Andrew
January 21st, 2010, 07:36 AM
If they want a website, I could help design it also.

(Hmm...it seems there is a forum up for WFTW?? http://wheelersforthewounded.org/index.php)

Brody
January 21st, 2010, 07:57 AM
Hey Andrew

I mentioned your name as someone on this site who would possibly willing to help out. From what I understand is that WFTW lost the site they were using and Molly is having to pick up the pieces. Chris offered to help, too, and Molly has someone else who has offered. Your best bet would be to contact her directly via email:

molly.houck@gmail.com

and get your name in the mix. Thanks for your offer from me. I think it is important that we become involved in this stuff, whether we support our government policies or not. These are our guys over there (wherever 'there' happens to be) and after seeing the debacle that we made in Vietnam and the response of the US to the returning vets, we, as people , need to show support to our troops...

And, rather than fall into the really bad apathetic mindset that 90% of the American population seems to have when it comes to doing anything besides putting new batteries into their remotes, it would be really nice if the Front Range 4x4 folks would make an effort with this WFTW event and nudge into the other 10%....

Lysmachia
January 21st, 2010, 08:04 AM
We had been told that forum might not stick around. In fact it very likely might not. I was surprised to still see it up. I'll have to check back into that. Here is the work we did from last year. http://wheelersforthewounded.org/index.php/board,56.0.html?PHPSESSID=4a2b0783dffd3dd9c8ff240c 3ade3ab8

We do at least need a web site of our own to post info for THE day, links to print posters from etc. I've got Gary (aka Chalkie) who has a web hosting business willing to put it up. We are still considering attaching our own forum to it.

The issue with the wheelersforthewounded.org national site is that there was a lot of drama and a falling out with the founder last year when he ran out of a lot of donated money and never made it to half of the events (including ours). I don't want to assume what happened for him (His name is Jason) but it is pretty well documented that some poor decisions were made. At any rate that is why going forward each state that wants to do this again seems to be separating themselves from the National idea. Colorado is still looking at maybe being in a smaller western group of some sort. (Idaho put on an event almost as large as ours as well as WA).

AccordRanger
January 21st, 2010, 08:15 AM
Im really gonna try to make it to this.

Andrew
January 21st, 2010, 08:28 AM
We had been told that forum might not stick around. In fact it very likely might not. I was surprised to still see it up. I'll have to check back into that. Here is the work we did from last year. http://wheelersforthewounded.org/index.php/board,56.0.html?PHPSESSID=4a2b0783dffd3dd9c8ff240c 3ade3ab8

We do at least need a web site of our own to post info for THE day, links to print posters from etc. I've got Gary (aka Chalkie) who has a web hosting business willing to put it up. We are still considering attaching our own forum to it.

The issue with the wheelersforthewounded.org national site is that there was a lot of drama and a falling out with the founder last year when he ran out of a lot of donated money and never made it to half of the events (including ours). I don't want to assume what happened for him (His name is Jason) but it is pretty well documented that some poor decisions were made. At any rate that is why going forward each state that wants to do this again seems to be separating themselves from the National idea. Colorado is still looking at maybe being in a smaller western group of some sort. (Idaho put on an event almost as large as ours as well as WA).

I see. I am decent with graphic design, and web design. I'm not a professional, but I could probably come up with something if you have some web space to use. Could design posters, etc. as well.

Brody
January 21st, 2010, 08:34 AM
Thanks for the support! Like I said before, this was one of the most well organized events we had ever been to. In addition to the sponsors and all the food preparation, the way the runs were organized was really good.

There were designated trail leaders with the assigned trail flyer on their back windshield. People would simply line up behind each leader according to what trail they wanted to run and the leader would put the rigs in the best order for the trail based on what mods the rigs had...winches, recovery points, etc, and designate a specific CB channel. A no brainer maybe, but having been to some other events where no thought was put into this kind of organization, the difference was amazing.

I mentioned to Molly that the BV area was probably going to be the best area again simply due to the huge number of trails of all difficulty levels around there. There is something for everyone: difficulty, lakes, scenic routes, high pass routes, etc. Anything that you want. I hope that it pans out for the BV area again. There are also a huge number of camping areas nearby that offer anything from KOA type camping to group camping including some secluded areas for privacy. The added advantage of this area would be that the FS has already dealt with last year's event and it would be easier dealing with them again.

We ended up camping in an area about 25 minutes drive from the meeting spot (Carnage/Chinaman's Gulch parking) and saw/heard only two rigs the two days we were there.

Lysmachia
January 26th, 2010, 06:12 PM
Hey all,

Wanted to let you know that I have been progressing. I am working on a web site currently. It isn't ready to share yet, and in fact I have a big chunk of work populating the site with info at this time. I hope to have that ready in the next 2 weeks. On that site will be a place for folks to sign up to help out, and I am gonna be needing help right away. We have a TON of work to do to make next year more sucsessful especially in terms of having more vets, and wounded vets there!

Looks like BV will be the site again since we already have a connection there and they were incredibly generous in not charging us a permit fee. I am really hopign they do that again this year.

So stay tuned. And thanks for being a part of this! -Molly

Brody
January 27th, 2010, 07:52 AM
Wheelers For The Wounded Update from Molly:

Currently with the feedback I have received we will plan to host the event in BV again with the 1st Date choice being Sat July 17th, with the 10th as a back up in case we find another event planned on the 17th.

I have 2 forms of fundraising I want to focus on. 1) An online silent auction for donated items and services (I already have some) - this would be held in May or June and 2) Another wrench-a-thon for donations. This will be held in early May.

From me:

If you feel like doing any volunteer work to help bring this off this year and make a better event, please PM Molly and she will give you further details. The WFTW event could use as many volunteers as we can get. Let us help out and show our support.

Lysmachia
February 19th, 2010, 02:30 PM
Hello All,

Please see the following new thread about needing a new Team lead for this event! http://www.frontrange4x4.com/forums/showthread.php?8669-Attention-WFTW-2010-Looking-for-a-Team-Lead&p=88096#post88096

I will still be very active but since i have no idea where troy and I will be the next few months I have to step down as lead. I promise it won't be that bad as there is tons of support, and we have already done the hard work of doing this event once already!!

At the very least check out that other thread!

Thanks! -Molly

Lysmachia
March 15th, 2010, 10:03 AM
Hi all, Here are the meeting minutes from ur March 6th meeting! As always, if you want to help, we sure can use it!

Follow up meeting is April 3rd at 1:00 at Eric's house near Coors Field. PM me for Addy!

Molly's tasks:
* Registration info for the web site
* Add new flyer to web site, for registration info (and for the event)
* Scott will do Stickers again
* Molly content to Eric for fund raising (to make a new pdf)
* Molly - Letter of request for donations - then disseminate to the crew.
* Molly and others trying to get Tech's for the April 25th wrench-a-thon - You need to RSVP for the WAT by April 18th Do any of you know Tech's from Jeep (or any shop for that matter) If so, will you contact them for the April 25th wrench-a-thon? We are going to be down some of my Toyota guys because some are going to the TLCA event in Moab that same weekend - even still many of us are handy with a wrench!

Notes:
* We may have a small charce per vehicle this year to get people to bring vets (see below)
* If you bring a wounded Vet to the July17th event, you get in FREE!
* Registration for WFTW for the Charity Wrench - thon - will be cutoff on April 18th. The Wrench-A-Thon is Sunday April 25th at Peterson AFB.

To do:
* Troy, Mike, Dave, (and all) please post on respective forums about needing Tech help for the April 25th wrench-a-thon - once I get you the flyer
* Layton can you ask your brother about the prices for each job
* Mike F will research Public affairs - mailto:Public_Afairs@VA
* Dave will research will research public affiars - afairs@afiairs.VA (afairs@afiairs.VA)
* Work with Gavin on getting wounded vets for the event (he has an IN!)
* Dave will ask KHOW about publicity
* ALL: I will email a leter of request for donations this week, please go to your local Costco, Sam's Club, Grocery Store and submit it for food donations.

Lysmachia
March 26th, 2010, 01:07 PM
OK all, an update - here is what I sent to our email list:

***********
Fellow Wheelers for the Wounded,
As many of you know this has been a tough year to get WFTW 2010 on its feet. While we are grateful for the volunteers thus far, we just have too much going on to chair the effort right now. It pains us to do this, but we're not staffed or financed as well as is required, and other factors are impinging on our ability to put together the kind event we want. Rather than sacrifice quality, we're going to look forward to next year and let things settle down so we can do it right.

For those of you who have volunteered, we are very sorry to disappoint you, but we will continue to look to the future. If there are folks who would like to continue to promote this project, great! To the extent we are able, we will support any and all efforts.
Regards,
Molly H & Eric R
Colorado Wheelers for the Wounded 2010
*************

This was a very hard decision for me but the following contributed to it: 3 of the 4 Techs I wanted to get for the charity wrench-a-thon on April 25th are out of town, then my SO ~TC~ is in Phoenix for an interview today and if all goes well, we will be moving soon. (He lost his job in January). Top it off with my medical issues (and the fact I can't drive....) I just had bigger things to take care of that came up after I signed on for WFTW.

But again if anyone here wants to chair the event, Eric and I will gladly hand over what we have. But with this economy and everyone struggling, it seemed to me a monumental task.