Message From the President – Shorefire Kudos

The Shorefire event has come and gone and what an event it was this year!

The weather was great with mild temps and low humidity.   With so many newly paved roads in the Middletown-Clayton-Hartly area, it was an ideal biking route.  The rest stops were stocked with a variety of food and drink options and were staffed by friendly, pleasant volunteers.  That amazing volunteer army also manned Registration and the SAG vehicles!  

I said all of this in a recent post on Facebook,  and I wanted to share  – for those of you who have not visited our social media site – with you the feedback that we’ve received from participants of the 2017 Shorefire:

“Thanks for a great ride. Thanks for helping me meet a personal goal this year. I successfully completed a century to celebrate turning 60. I made the right choice participating in the Shorefire! Hats off to all.” – Margi Slomiany 

“Thank you so much for an amazing ride yesterday!! Awesome volunteers, beautiful course, tasty snacks, and… fancy restrooms! You spoiled us!” – Heather Lee Montague

“Great job on a great event!! Well done everyone!” – Jennifer Addison

“We were the last 3 back on the century (started a bit late, sorry! Long drive from Baltimore/Columbia), and I told the last volunteers when we came in, what an absolutely great ride!  One of the best routes I’ve been on in recent memory (except I am partial to the Seagull Century!)  Enough turns to escape headwinds for too long, and nice rolling hills on the last part to get some speed and a nice break from the flats.  All the volunteers were fantastic…we appreciate the rest stops staying open.  Everything was well-stocked…much more than expected for the price (seriously, you should charge more!). Also, I lost my retainer for my InvisAlign at the Clayton  stop and everyone helped me find it!  Will definitely get my MD biking friends out next year for this!  Thanks again!” – Shannon McGarrah

Kudos and congrats to the White Clay Bike Club, for hosting another excellent Shore Fire Century on Saturday! We enjoyed a great ride – the route was very scenic, the roads were quiet, the rest stops were well-stocked, etc. Plenty of road markings to keep us going in the right direction. Thanks again, White Clay! – Linda A. McGrane 

As organizers and volunteers, we often hear about the bad things that happen during an event – the roads were rough, route marking wasn’t clear, the weather too hot, my pre-registration wasn’t on the list, I had to wait for SAG support, etc. – and, unfortunately, we tend to focus too much on those sorts of snafus when there are so many more things that happen that go right than go wrong.  

Comments and conversations with the volunteers during the event at Registration, rest stop, and SAG are greatly appreciated and will go a long way to making a volunteer feel like their time volunteering was meaningful.  Please remember that most if not everyone involved with events like this, whether put on by our Club or another organization, are volunteering their time to make this a pleasant and memorable experience for you.  

Comments like the ones above are what bring volunteers back year after year to put on an event just like the Shorefire.  If you liked an event, let them know.  Get onto the event’s website and post a message.  And if you didn’t let them know that as well in a constructive and helpful way.  All feedback is welcomed and will help to make an event more inviting and one that you will want to return to over and over.

As I said on Facebook and I’ll say again here – thank you to everyone involved with this event, either as a volunteer or participant. Your support of the Shorefire event – and the White Clay Bicycle Club – is greatly appreciated.

JW Haupt
WCBC President