ISDE Medical Support for Team USA

[Tatonka]

Team USA Needs Your Help!

Medical support for Team USA at the Six Days - we can make this happen! I have attached a recent letter from Donna Macan which went out to the current team riders for this year's Six Days in Portugal. This effort is completely separate from the primary mission of RDF but one which I hope you will all agree is worthwhile. Read on....

Good afternoon ISDE team members,

My name is Donna Macan and I just wanted to take a few moments to introduce myself to you and discuss some efforts I have going for medical support this year for Portugal. I have been involved in motocross and off-road racing for over 20 years. Some of you may know me from the GNCCs or events produced by Racer Productions or MX Sports. You may also know my brother Don from KTM.

While at Loretta Lynn's mx this year, my friends Dr. James McGee, an ER physician and Mike "Spook" McGee, a certified life flight paramedic/massage therapist who were there to provide medical support to the motocross racers got on the topic of how nice it would be to have medical support to off-road racers at the ISDE. We realize that it would be nearly impossible for them to be out on the trail in the event of injury but they would be available when you came back into the pits, at the hotel or if you were transported to serve as your medical advocate. Spook is also working with his former employer Air EVAC Services based out of Louisiana to provide a rider discount if for some reason a rider would need medical transport back to the US.

The only thing that they asked was to cover their air/lodging. I have checked into the airfare for them and lodging at the American hotel so that way they were available to you at night or in the morning if necessary. Bruce Vermeulen, President of RiderDown.org and I have spoken several times regarding the importance of medical support to American riders travelling abroad and think that raising the funds for the McGee's is totally do-able. The ball is definitely rolling and I'm sure that with such a great organization like RiderDown we will succeed.

Bruce and I both respect your accomplishments as racers and your passion to represent the United States in off-road racing and think this is a small gesture on our part to support you. Just so you know, any overflow funds raised this year would definitely go towards a medical support team for 2010 and beyond. Dr. Augustine and some of his staff at the ASMF have also expressed interest in being part of this effort and I thank them for that.

Thank you for taking the time to read my email and if you have any thoughts or suggestions please do not hesitate to email me or call me on my cell.

With that being said, we have scheduled an auction at the Unadilla GNCC September 12th and we are working with Jason Reed from WORCS Racing to see about doing the same at one of the WORCS races. I will let you know once I confirm with him.

Donna


Thanks in advance for your help. Stay tuned for more details.

BV

[Tatonka]

Here is a direct link to donate to this effort: http://www.riderdown.org/forum/awcl_dsl.php?do=donation

Please remember to specify that this donation is for the ISDE Medical Support Fund.

[Tatonka]

Check out Destry tonite (8/26/09) on DMXS radio......

Kawasaki’s Destry Abbott has been selected again to ride for the United States ISDE team in Portugal. For those of you that are not familiar with the event, it stands for the International Six Days Enduro! Six days of consecutive riding for approximately 750 miles against 30 other countries in basically the Olympics of off-road racing. Destry will also talk about the need to get our own medical personnel to race as well. Donations are being accepted at www.riderdown.org to have ER physician, James McGee, and life-flight medic Mike McGee on the trip. You can just imagine how important this kind of support is. Please note on your donation that it goes towards the ISDE medical trip. Also, look for auctions at the Unadilla GNCC and more fund raisers and ride days in the near future. We know times are tight, but please spread the word and give a little if you can.

[Tatonka]

This was posted on the WORCS Racing websaite today...

RiderDown.org ISDE Medical Support Fund at Glen Helen

Posted: 9/10/2009

Washington, UT- 9/10/09: RiderDown.org & WORCS Racing have announced efforts to help support the ISDE Team USA in sending a medical support team to Portugal next month for the International Six Days Enduro race. This marks the first year Team USA riders will have medical support on hand for during this annual event. The upcoming WORCS Bike race which will be held at Glen Helen Raceway in two weeks (Sept. 18-20th) will have a RiderDown booth set up for a silent auction which will include industry donations as well as Autographed Gear sets from a few of the riders. Bruce Vermeulen of RiderDown has prepared a volunteer staff of supporters to head up this wonderful cause in order to help support our Team USA riders.

"Year in and year out these guys pour their heart and soul into this event representing the United States, and they do it on their own dime. The Six Days is a brutal test of man and machine and providing medical support and advocacy for them while racing in a foreign country is the right thing to do” says Bruce Vermeulen, President of the RiderDown Foundation. “When I was first approached with this by Donna Macan of MX Sports at Loretta Lynn’s this summer it just struck me as something that had to be done. With the help of Dr. Augustine of the ASMF we have lined up Dr. James McGee, an ER physician and Mike "Spook" McGee, a certified life flight paramedic/massage therapist to be on hand in Portugal at the ISDE to take care of our guys. Jason Reed and all of the folks at WORCS Racing have been extremely supportive of this project as well as the riders on Team USA. Thanks for what you do and good luck bringing home the Gold!”

"This is a great idea that RiderDown has brought to the table and the WORCS series is proud to partner with them for this cause. WORCS is proud to be sending 5 of the 6 team members for the US Trophy team including Ricky Dietrich, Destry Abbott, Damon Huffman, Tim Weigand and Kurt Caselli & Nathan Kanney of GNCC, as well as Jamie Lanza of the WORCS series on the US Junior Trophy team, who will be going to Portugal in effort to bring home the GOLD. I encourage everyone to stop by the RiderDown booth at Glen Helen and drop in a silent auction on some of these awesome items up for bid." Jason Reed of the WORCS series

The RiderDown.org booth will be set-up Friday, Sat and Sunday, with the auctions being called Sunday morning at 10:00 am on Pro pit row.

About RiderDown Foundation:
RiderDown Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping responsible off road motorcyclists and ATV racers who have been injured while riding. Proceeds are used to provide assistance to the riders and their families when faced with medical expenses and related issues. For more information or to make a donation, please visit www.riderdown.org.

[Tatonka]

Wow - this even made it into the AMA online Newsletter!

http://www.ama-cycle.org/news/story.asp?id=1290

[Tatonka]

Here's a new website from the AMA....

http://www.amateamusa.com/default.aspx




hmmmm, the site is gone? Hopefully only a temporary thing!