OUR BRAIN CANCER FUNDRAISERS
Making a Difference
2020 - Virtuality
Soon after the official launch of the SoC effort (and while we were pursuing contacts to host motorcycle charity rides, which was the original focus of the SoC effort), we thought it would be useful to host a "virtual" event for the many dedicated Rush and NEP fans that followed us on our various social media accounts. We chose to name this event "Virtuality" (after one of the band's albums), the focus of which was to have participants do something that honored NEP and his enthusiasm to make the most of each day!
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We choose the date of 02.11.20 (2112) to hold this event and had asked participants to 1) donate $21.12 to the www.abta.org fundraising page and 2) post pictures of whatever activity they chose to do!
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In the end, we had ~5 participants post pictures to the SoC twitter account (some road motorcycles, others went on hikes with family & friends), ~25 participants donated to the www.abta.org fundraising page and we raised ~$1157 (~50% of our $2112 goal) in Neil Peart's honor!
In our opinion, this was indeed a very successful first event (SoC1) for the SoC initiative!
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Sadly however, soon after holding this event, the effort came to a COMPLETE standstill (and went into a dormant state for ~1 full year) due to the COVID pandemic.
2022 - Celebrate seven 29
Once the dust of COVID settled down, and our efforts to engage with motorcycle clubs and shops (the original focus and intent of the SoC effort) seemed to bear little fruit (see The History of SoC) elsewhere on this page), we decided that an official pivot was in order!
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We knew that there was good engagement and enthusiasm with the Rush and NEP fans we had connected with on various social media platforms, so we decided to lean HEAVILY into it!
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The second SoC fundraiser was set for the weekend of July 29, 2022! This date was chosen as it was on July 29, 1974 when Neil Peart joined Rush. We decided to call this event "Celebrate seven 29" in honor of that date!
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For this fundraiser, we encouraged participants to do some kind of activity that Neil would have done himself and try and have the number 29 involved (like go hike 2.9 miles, ride a bicycle for 29 miles, count 29 different birds, or maybe ride a motorcycle 290 miles!); having some chrome involved was an added bonus! Our slogan for this event was a quote from Neil: "What is the most excellent thing I can do today?"
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We had ~7 participants share photos and ~30 donate (most donations were the suggested $29!) to the www.abta.org fundraising page. For this event we NAILED our target of $2,112!
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The success of SoC2 gives us inspiration to push on to 2023 and beyond!
2023 - Sweet Memories
The 3rd SoC Brain Cancer Fundraiser in Neil Peart's honor was held over the week of July 22 through July 29, 2023. The event, called "Sweet Memories," was focused on reminiscing and celebrating our most cherished memories of Rush and/of Neil Peart. This year our suggested donation to the American Brain Cancer "host your own" fundraising page (linked below) was $21.12 and we again set our goal as $2112 in NEP's honor. Over the course of that week, we had ~30 people donate and in the end we not only hit our goal of $2112, we surpassed it by a bit (total: $2275!).
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As much as SoC3 was, in the end, a success, we are uncertain where this goes from here. We had anticipated a greater level of engagement (following the release of the SoC website and the initiation of The Ghost Rider "Rider-along" ) however, that really did not materialize. Yes, we did hit our goal, but it was a struggle to get there and was only possible (just like SoC2 in '22) due to a couple very generous donations.
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We will be exploring ideas for how to best strategize moving forward and if you have any suggestions, please contact us.
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We know there is enthusiasm for the SoC initiative, we just have to better tap into it!