This year's Tour de France ended today. Camp Esperanza ended yesterday.
The Tour de France is a 100+ year old bike race across Europe. Camp Esperanza is a 25 year old summer camp for kids fighting cancer in Texas.
Le Tour is 21 teams of 9 vying for fame and glory (and considerable monetary rewards) by racing bicycles across Europe to get to Paris first. Camp Esperanza is 10 teams of 6 volunteer counselors working with 10 groups of about 14 children ranging in age from 6 to 16. All the kids are or have been fighting cancer at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.
The Tour lasts for nearly three weeks and covers over 2000 miles of beautiful European countryside. Camp Esperanza lasts for one week at the Camp John Marc facility on the border of the beautiful Texas Hill Country near Meridian, Texas.
Both have sophisticated support staffs and spend many months planning each year's event. (Camp John Marc is probably one of the premier camps for medically fragile children in the world.)
What amazes my simple mind are the remarkable parallels between these two radically different adventures. It gets back to working together. The guys on the bikes can go fast and help each other by riding in pacelines. (See my blog of July 10, 2007.) The same goes for the men and women working with the nearly 140 kids who epitomize diversity.
Three busloads of children arrive on Sunday and depart for home the following Friday. The kids range from future linebackers to some who are near the need for (or are actually in) hospice.
For some of the children, it is the first time they've been away from home. For some of their parents, it is the first time they've let go of their children since they've been diagnosed with cancer. For nearly everyone, it is the best week of the year.
It is an exhilarating, exhausting, challenging, fun, sad, hope filled week. It's tough for me to restrain myself from writing way more than you wanna read about this special week in July.
My point today is that the ONLY way the volunteer counselors get through that incredible week is by working (and playing) together.
It is a beautiful thing to see. Just like a paceline.
BTW, "esperanza" is Spanish for "hope."
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Can't We All Just Get Along?
Ever wonder what a paceline really is? It's a great example of playing nice...when it works.
A typical paceline is a group of people in a hurry to get somewhere that follow in line right behind each other. Sounds kind of goofy if you remember playing follow the leader as a kid, especially when you thought it was really fun to stop all of a sudden when you were in front.
You ain't seen goofy till you've seen some guys wearing dorky little helmets matching their garishly colored spandex and riding bicycles in a paceline. And when you see this, and understand it, you might revise your opinion of what goofy is.
The Tour de France began again on Saturday with 189 riders. A bunch of crazy guys have been riding this epic bike race across France since 1903. Le Tour and Versus offers us some quality visuals on working together...or not.
The strategy of the race is pretty simple. Survive and get to the finish line first.
The tactics aren't much more complicated. Teams of nine guys ride in a line...a paceline. The first guy leads and the rest follow closely behind him using about 2/3 the effort. When the first guy gets tired, he rotates back, and someone else leads...starts pulling the team from the front.
These teams are sometimes closely choreographed and sometimes not. Most of the time the teams form a larger group or pack (the peleton) to fight the wind for the long haul. They're still working together to save energy even though they're competitors.
Sometimes a few impatient (or really ambitious) guys will break away from the pack. Those individuals will become their own ad hoc team (for a while) to work together to beat the pack. Most of the time, but not always, the larger group will catch and pass the smaller group just by working together.
Do ya get the theme here yet? This sharing the load - getting along - working together thing?
It is pretty neat and works amazingly well. Working together to go further and faster with less effort. Wow! What a concept.
So why don't more people do it? Why don't more nonprofits do it? Especially if their hearts beat to the plight of the same cause?
A typical paceline is a group of people in a hurry to get somewhere that follow in line right behind each other. Sounds kind of goofy if you remember playing follow the leader as a kid, especially when you thought it was really fun to stop all of a sudden when you were in front.
You ain't seen goofy till you've seen some guys wearing dorky little helmets matching their garishly colored spandex and riding bicycles in a paceline. And when you see this, and understand it, you might revise your opinion of what goofy is.
The Tour de France began again on Saturday with 189 riders. A bunch of crazy guys have been riding this epic bike race across France since 1903. Le Tour and Versus offers us some quality visuals on working together...or not.
The strategy of the race is pretty simple. Survive and get to the finish line first.
The tactics aren't much more complicated. Teams of nine guys ride in a line...a paceline. The first guy leads and the rest follow closely behind him using about 2/3 the effort. When the first guy gets tired, he rotates back, and someone else leads...starts pulling the team from the front.
These teams are sometimes closely choreographed and sometimes not. Most of the time the teams form a larger group or pack (the peleton) to fight the wind for the long haul. They're still working together to save energy even though they're competitors.
Sometimes a few impatient (or really ambitious) guys will break away from the pack. Those individuals will become their own ad hoc team (for a while) to work together to beat the pack. Most of the time, but not always, the larger group will catch and pass the smaller group just by working together.
Do ya get the theme here yet? This sharing the load - getting along - working together thing?
It is pretty neat and works amazingly well. Working together to go further and faster with less effort. Wow! What a concept.
So why don't more people do it? Why don't more nonprofits do it? Especially if their hearts beat to the plight of the same cause?
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Who's Running the Show?
Okay, boys and girls. Time for a quiz.
According to FP (that's the catchy acronym for Foreign Policy magazine) how many nations still have monarchs as head of state?
A) 34
B) 44
C) 54
The answer is of course later in this post. In the meantime, here are some questions closer to home.
How many monarchs are running nonprofits? Optionally you can answer the following question:
Is your nonprofit being run by a monarch? Take your time. It's an essay question.
The answer may be readily apparent, or it may need to develop while you're on one of your long runs or standing under a hot shower. Wherever you do your best thinking and talking to yourself.
So what's the answer to the question on rulers in those faraway lands?
According to FP, there are 44 countries that still have a monarch as head of state. They say that's quite a bit fewer than last century, but it still seems like a lot to me. Of those 44, Queen Elizabeth reigns over 16 of them.
To put it in context, I went to my friendly spy service, the CIA World Factbook. They tell me there are 268 countries in the world. So just over 16% of the countries on this planet are ruled by some sort of potentate.
How many nonprofits being ruled by just one person? My gut tells me it is more than 16% of the total.
Is yours one of them?
According to FP (that's the catchy acronym for Foreign Policy magazine) how many nations still have monarchs as head of state?
A) 34
B) 44
C) 54
The answer is of course later in this post. In the meantime, here are some questions closer to home.
How many monarchs are running nonprofits? Optionally you can answer the following question:
Is your nonprofit being run by a monarch? Take your time. It's an essay question.
The answer may be readily apparent, or it may need to develop while you're on one of your long runs or standing under a hot shower. Wherever you do your best thinking and talking to yourself.
So what's the answer to the question on rulers in those faraway lands?
According to FP, there are 44 countries that still have a monarch as head of state. They say that's quite a bit fewer than last century, but it still seems like a lot to me. Of those 44, Queen Elizabeth reigns over 16 of them.
To put it in context, I went to my friendly spy service, the CIA World Factbook. They tell me there are 268 countries in the world. So just over 16% of the countries on this planet are ruled by some sort of potentate.
How many nonprofits being ruled by just one person? My gut tells me it is more than 16% of the total.
Is yours one of them?
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