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President’s Message Jan 2016

Greetings RFTW!

I hope you all had a joyous holiday season and your New Year is starting off Great!

As most of you know all plans for RFTW 2016 are well down the action path. Registration is open, hotels are set, fuel stops identified, leadership teams are being fine-tuned, and all over the country the RFTW Family is making plans to participate in some if not all of the activities. The Route Coordinators have been working diligently with their teams to create the best Mission Focused routes and supporting activities for several months, but now is when the old adage “the devil is in the details” comes into play!

A key part of each Route is the State Coordinator for each state. These are the key contact points for every fuel stop, lunch, breakfast, supper, school visit, memorial and hospital visitation, camping resource, hotel room block, and a myriad of other details. Their work for the next Run begins as we go through their area of responsibility the current year. Always keep in mind that they, like the rest of the leadership, are Volunteers. We all do our best but since nothing in Life is always perfect there are bound to be hiccups. Also keep in mind that when we arrive at a location we are not “business as usual” for many spots. When you are standing in line at some hotel, tired and ready for a hot shower after a long day on the Run and the line doesnt seem to move — just take a breath. Imagine if YOU were at work and (even though you knew they were coming) 200+ people showed up at your counter/desk/door and all wanted service at the same time.

As we all begin preparations for May it would behoove us to remember the reason we ride: The Mission. We are all ambassadors of not only ourselves and RFTW, but most importantly the message of Why We Ride. The message that there are those that did not come home. The message that there are Those We Do Not Forget.

Ride Safe!

Greg “Pied Piper (sometimes Yoda)” Smith