Ok, I had an idea...and it didn't work out quite the way I was hoping...but maybe I can salvage it. As most of you know by now, I ride in the Bike MS MS150 each year. What most of you may not know is that the NMSS has a program they call "Champions Against MS" or just Champs.

The idea is to get people with MS to give contact information and sign a bandanna with a message for a rider. At the package pickup before the ride, the riders can get one or more bandannas and connect with a person who has MS. It gives the rider a real person to ride for (if they didn't have one already) and gives the people with MS a connection to somebody in the ride.

So my idea was to try to get my hands on a bandanna a few weeks early and bring it to the Houston get together to get a bunch of signatures on it, since my long-term goal has always been to ride for my friends online with MS. From the very beginning, before I had an MS dx for sure, I was very touched by the friendship, support, and compassion available in the MS forums online. I made it my goal then and now to ride for all of you.

Unfortunately, the NMSS didn't have this year's bandannas until a few days after the Houston get together. So here is what I came up with to try to salvage the idea. I have no idea if any of you would be interested in participating, but what I had in mind was to accumulate a list of addresses, and put the bandanna, a copy of the list, and a bunch of stamps in an envelope and send it out to the first person on the list. Then that person signs it, puts it in a new envelope with a few of the stamps on it and sends it on. Until eventually it gets sent back to me full of your signatures, so I can carry all of you with me on the ride.

I have 51 days until the ride, so if I get started soon, I should have time to get a bunch of signatures on it. So what do you say? Is anybody interested? For the Houston area folks, I would be glad to meet some of y'all individually somewhere to get it signed...but is anybody else interested in putting their mark on MS for me to carry? If not, feel free to say so too...not trying to be pushy or anything

Hi Batman!

I would love to have my name included.

Have you considered just giving out your addy to those interested and having them mail you their signature. Then you could put the siggy strips inside the bandanna and carry it like a hobo would.

Hey Batman,

I would love to do that...........what part of town are you in?

Sounds like fun! I'd love to be a part of it!

Well - let's just have another get together to sign the thing here!

I sign bandanas every year for the Houston-Austin ride.

Tom

Count me in!

Great idea, Batman! Let me save you some headache: just about everyone here has at least one or two addresses of others, and most of us would be willing to part with a couple stamps for the cause, so maybe it would be easier for you to just get it moving and let us handle the dirty work.

Whoever has it close to the deadline can PM you for your address and get it to you toot sweet!

Here are a couple of suggestions:

Don't just send it willy-nilly all over the country. There's no sense mailing it from Texas to Maine to California to Massachusetts, because each of those legs will take 3-4 days or so if you send it First Class.

Send it to the closest place to you, and you will get more signatures. For example, Texas to Missouri to Georgia to Virginia to Maryland, etc. Try to make a loop.

Batman - what a great idea!! I remember a couple of years ago you talking about it! I am glad you are trying to make your dream come true! High 5 to you, my friend!!!

Cindy's idea is great - just a suggestion also to try to send it to places that are pretty close together so it doesn't sit in the post office all the time. Like don't send it to Utah and have Twink send it to NC and then someone send it back to Idaho...... and I making this clear or sounding like an idiot?

you said it much better than I did..... should of known the Post Office person would think of it!!!