Discussion: Gswede Senior Fundraiser

Motivated by our juniors and one of the most inspiring figures in American orienteering, Peter Gagarin, I've committed to the Gswede Control Challenge so we can get a coach who is sorely needed to guide the senior team.

Gswede Control Challenge
1. You pledge an amount per control -- 50 cents, 25 cents, 10 cents, whatever you like -- and I am motivated to train even more.

2. Each control I punch in training and competition from November 26th until January 31st counts except for control pick exercises that count as half.

3. I will post the official count after each training session and race on my log and in this thread.

4. You support a national team with a clear goal for your donation and motivate a national team member who is training his heart out in the wintry Pocono landscape.

5. You can pledge by either commenting on this thread or sending me an email at swederunner154 (at) gmail.com. I'll keep track of everything in an Excel sheet.

Just a bit more info:
-I expect to punch between 700-800 controls from now until January 31st.
-As I see it, having a thriving senior team is important for junior development. If juniors "graduate" from a structured program to one where they're suddenly responsible for training, travel, logistics, paying for everything, and figuring it all out on their own, it can be daunting to say the least.

This is great. I hope a lot of people support Greg in this!

So true, Gswede, your comment about "graduating" juniors and the daunting future of their O-ing. I'll have fun with this one, too. $20 for the first 100 controls, $40 for the second 100, $60 for the 3rd, etc., with 20 cents per control beyond completed set of 100. Tentatively capped at $750. So for, e.g., 784 controls it would be (7*8/2*$20) + 0.20*84 = $576.80.

I pledge $0.10/control.
Thanks for doing this Greg!

Great objective and very timely. PG's and your fundraisings are two sides of the same coin, namely to develop the next generation of elite orienteers in the US! I am in for $0.25 per control, plus a $50 bonus at 700 controls and an additional $100 bonus when you punch the 800th control.

I'm in for $0.10 per control.

Greg, I pledge $0.10 per control. Go for it. Great idea.

Rick and I are in for $.10/control....plus $1 for every person who buys in to this event. Go Greg!

Janet and I are in for $0.10/control.

I pledge $0.10 per control. Way to go, Greg!

I'm in for $0.20 per control.

Count me in for $.20 per control.

I'm in for $.20 per control. Thanks for doing this Greg. Happy winter training!

Wow! This is great. Thank you, everyone!

It's a little slow for technical training now because it's deer season in Pennnsylvania and New Jersey. But when it finishes, I'll start the serious training.

I can pledge 25cents per control. Good luck!

I'm in for $0.10 per control.

Thanks again for the support, everyone!

We're still gearing up for deer season to end, but things are going well nonetheless.

Control Count: 57

We're up to 57 controls so far! Woo!

As a fan of Greg's I'm following this but not contributing because I feel beholden to direct my contributions to the Canadian team.

For those that don't want to do the math themselves but are curious I get up to $1.60/control on this thread plus Greg mentioned someone donating $0.50 on his log. That's $2.10/control and then there are various people committing to contributing other amounts based on other factors.

Great initiative Greg and I love that the money is going to something for the whole team and not just for your own personal benefit as an athlete!

I'll pledge R0.50 per control.

I'll be in Madrid in February to collect on that, Brad ;)

Thanks, Jeff! That's pretty close to the actual count, but there are a few creative challenges that make it a bit more complicated.

I'm in for $0.20/control.

Brenda and I pledge $0.15/control. Happy training!

We want in on this action!

Inara, Barney, Boris, and I pledge $.10 per control and an extra $.10 per control that has a flag at it.

We hope to see you in the woods!!

That's a good challenge :)

Fabulous, a senior team fundraiser and a junior team fundraiser. I want to help out both, so here's my risk-managing formula (I'm not talking about the risk to Gswede, I'm taking about the risk to my wallet if he visits 900 or 1000 or 2000 controls):

1-749 controls: $50 (total for any number of controls in this range--not per control!)
750 controls: $75 (")
751 or more controls: $100 (") plus a nickel for each control beyond 750

PLUS

Whatever I give by my formula for PG's MF2 fundraiser for the juniors, I will add the same amount to the Gswede/senior team donation. (Once, not recursively!)

I’m counting 26 contributors...yes, I counted Barney...let’s pump up the number of contributors and inspire Greg...not that he needs inspiration.

And we're up to 101 controls! With 32 controls with flags for Barney and Inara ;)

in for $.20 a control.

149....the numbers are getting up there!

And we're up to 172.

Thanks for all the support, everyone!

I hit 247 yesterday!

Happy holidays!

Fantastic!

Up to 300 today!

Happy New Year, folks!

Now I'm going to sleep.

Yay! Keep up the good work!

Good luck! We are all counting on you

Forgot to post on here last night. Sorry!

We're up to 403 controls!

Go Greg Go!

And there's still 2.5 weeks to go!

Two and a half weeks to go and we're at 480 controls! Georgia Navigator Cup this weekend!

Very late at getting to this, so we will try to inspire you through the last couple hundred controls.
twenty five cents for every control so far.
Then the work begins...an additional seventy five cents for controls up to six hundred.
an additional 100 cents for every control over 700.
an additional one fifty cents over 800.

I hope the snow holds off,
Go Greg!

I like it! 800 controls is quite the challenge! But I'll go for it!

Come to think of it, would anyone else like challenging me to reach 800?

I'm already in for $0.20. I'll up that to $0.25 for each control over 700; changing that to $0.30 for each control over 700 if you make it to at least 800 by the end of Jan 2019.

Thank you!

We're up to 578 now. I'm back home and ready for the final stretch.

I wanted to share a bit more on the intended use of the funds for those who have pledged (and for those who are still considering it!)

Right now, the plan is to earmark $2000 for a coach to provide organization and coordination for our team. Even a skeleton structure that ensures we're all interacting regularly is more than we've had during my time on the team.

And the amount above $2000 I would like to set aside for travel subsidies for our senior team members who are in college or who have graduated from college within the past year (exact criteria TBD). As we've all seen, we lose most our former juniors through and after college. Personally, I doubt I would have pursued elite orienteering had I not moved to Spain where I had a training group and inexpensive ways to orienteer. Once our athletes get past the post-college financial threshold and earn enough to pay their way, elite orienteering is much more sustainable. So I'm very excited to again see how our community has come together to support each other and grow.

Thank you!

Just realized that my donation incentive has a hole in it, didn't cover controls six hundred to seven hundred....so change to every control over sixhundred is a dollar fifty.

A sickness slowed down the control punching, folks. But we're getting back into it.

We're at 677 today. Looks like a big snowstorm is coming tomorrow and only a few days left for the challenge. Coming down to the wire to get to 800!

And we've made it, everyone!

The 805th control was punched this evening with three mini-sprints in -19c/-2f weather.

To those who have pledged donations: thank you.
I punched the controls, but this challenge would mean nothing without your commitment.

I'm going to work out the exact amounts of donations tomorrow, because I'd like to sleep now. But right now it looks like we brought in about $3,500.

I've spoken with AthleteBiz and I would like it if everyone can donate through the campaign there (link below) instead of Paypal. I've checked with them and as long as it's going to a non-profit organization, then your donation is still tax-deductible.

In addition, I think it's more important for our community to support our connection to AthleteBiz than it is to support PayPal. I've gotten lots of publicity through AthleteBiz. The Backpacker article last February came about because of them, for example. The fees Athletebiz charges are much lower than GoFundMe and only go towards supporting their website and their mission. So let's thank them for helping us.

And lastly, thank you for motivating me. I undoubtedly would have trained hard this winter. But knowing that others were making a firm commitment to supporting me helped me get out there much more and push even harder. This evening, I hardly noticed the sub-zero temperatures. I chalk this up to the support of the community. I was too focused to worry about the weather.

So thank you again. And let's get ready for some warmer weather and a great 2019 season!

Great work and let us know how we can continue to show support!

kwilliams, exactly. Anyone want to match the total?!! ;-)

Hello!

A reminder to please donate through AthleteBiz so I can send the payment into OUSA. If you prefer to pay by check, that's good too. Just let me know so I can close the AthleteBiz campaign. Thanks!

Greg, just saw this. Great job. I just made my payment today via AthleteBiz

Hey, everyone!

A short update.

The funds have been received. I've created a draft application for the position that we're still working on to ensure we have the best coach to prepare our athletes for next year's sprint WOC in Denmark.

My spring has been quite a whirlwind so I haven't had time to give updates. But I'm taking advantage of my unplanned downtime now : )

Bravo Greg!

Hope that your hammy is better!