The sixth annual toured Tour de Gem is a cycling event for local nonprofits. It takes place on Sunday, October 1, 2023. Event organizers have teamed up this year with United Way of Greater Dayton, WYSO's Jerry Kenney recently spoke with United Way of Dayton President Tom Kelley and Tour de Gem co-organizer Gerry Chadwick, who speaks first about the collaboration.
Gerry Chadwick: We began this in 2018. We had a vision where we could attract hundreds, if not a thousand riders to participate in this event and raise money for area nonprofits - hopefully getting up to the hundreds of thousands to $1,000,000 in donations made. The organizing committee was just a handful of local people, all of us who had full time jobs and some of us were business owners. And what we found over the five years that we have operated the event, Jerry, is that we felt like we were kind of bumping against a ceiling. We're able to get 300 plus riders, $100,000 or so in in donations received, but didn't really have the contacts, nor did we really have the time and volunteer/staff people available to build this thing, to reach those goals.
I went to Brian Martin from Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission and talked to him about the challenges that we're having to see if he would if he had any ideas. And he introduced me to Tom Kellye, the president of United Way. And Tom and I had several lengthy conversations. And it was certainly a good fit for Tour de Gem because it's a well-known organization within the region, as well as having a fully staffed operation.
Tom Kelley: So, this is Tom from United Way's perspective. We as United Way are sort of the intersect agency to the variety of nonprofits that exist in the community. Our mission is to uplift the community and provide assistance to those who need it. In looking at Tour de Gem and thinking about the work they've done for these first five years; it provided us with a new platform opportunity to both increase awareness in the community and another vehicle to help agencies with fundraising capacity. We, as you know, in a way, do in fact have a staff. We do have outreach in the community for volunteers. And we felt we could provide Tour de Gem with some additional capacity, some additional awareness, and the ability to help it grow as we look forward into future years. So, we want to be an integral partner with tours to Jim, and we want to provide her with more opportunities over the years to grow, to become more embedded in the nonprofit community, and to provide her with the unique opportunity to be positioned as a premiere event for our community moving forward.
Jerry Kenney: mission of both of your organizations. I mean, this collaboration seems kind of a no brainer. How do you approach that goal of growing the event?
TK: Well, from a United Way standpoint, part of our endeavor is how to make it more of what you describe as a 'no-brainer' to the non-profits who need to raise money. How do we appeal to them to think about this as another tool they could take advantage of another opportunity to reach out to not only the nucleus of supporters they already have, but how to multiply them through their partnerships, their natural networks, the people they're affiliated with, the people that are their own circles, and how to expand those circles and turn it into a fundraising engine. How to also look at the volunteer networks throughout our community that can provide more support, how to make it an event that everyone rallies around in the community each and every year and it doesn't just have life on the day of the ride, but it has a life that they think about all throughout the year is something to look forward to.
JK: That's a pretty significant expansion of Gerry, I guess, your original vision to help nonprofits in the area. So, let's talk a little bit more about the scope of this year's event. Who's benefiting? How many people do you have involved? How many volunteers are you going to mobilize? Kind of give us the rundown for this year.
GC: Sure. Well, by way of just a little bit of background, this is the sixth annual event and how nonprofits participate is they register a team. They reach out to their constituency and ask people to join a team. With what I like to say in air quotes, Jerry, is 'this is not just an event for a cyclist.' We've got something for everybody. So, what we're looking for are people who have a passion for the mission of the nonprofit that they're going to ride for and raise money for, and they use a bike as a trigger to enable that fundraising. 'I'm going to put myself out there. I'm going to ride 35 miles to raise money for this nonprofit whose mission will accomplish X.'.
And so, what we're trying to... Where we think we're going to be this year is 300 to 350 participants, should be able to raise well over $100,000. And really important is that 100% of all monies raised by those teams goes back to that nonprofit, and the organization takes care of all the planning, all the expense associated with the event. So, we're delivering and an event opportunity that is pretty much hands off for the nonprofit. They don't have to use up their limited resources to plan and execute an event, and all we ask them to do is to reach out to their constituents and let them know about the opportunity and encourage them to participate.
And then we've tried to communicate ways to make people feel like they can do this as compared to and I'll say it again 'Who are the cyclists?' You don't need to know that any of us could get on a bike path and, you know, ride ten miles. And to that point, we've got routes for everybody. So, we have a bike path route that leaves Riverscape and will head south to through Miamisburg and to Franklin. It's 1 to 35 miles, so you can go out as far as you want, turn around and come back. And then we have three road routes for more experienced riders that really showcases the entire community. So, we're pretty excited about the way the events been designed and how we're going to execute it for people so that they can have a great deal of fun, satisfaction in what they've accomplished to their fundraising, and we're going to make sure that. it's with an eye always on safety.
JK: So if I'm hearing your words right now, it's early to mid-September and I want to get some people together to join this event. Tell me how to do it.
GC: Well, WYSO has a team! You can go to WW w dot toward the gem dot org. You can search for any one of the nonprofit teams that are out there.
JK: Gerry Chadwick is one of the organizers of Tour de Gem. Tom Kelley is president of United Way, Greater Dayton Area. Thank you both so much and good luck with this year's event.
TK: Thank you.
GC: Thank you, Jerry. Look forward to seeing you out there.
