Mike Vincent fundraiser at ASA Action Sports World Tour Kings Island

Memorial Day weekend we had a major event in southwestern Ohio. The ASA Action Sports World Tour for 2009 continued, with a huge event at Kings Island amusement park, just outside of Cincinnati. It was an action packed weekend filled with rides, fireworks, BMX vert, and skate vert contests, as well as live music and freestyle motocross demos.

Mike and Debbie made the trip out from Virginia to come join the festivities. It was the first time I had seen either one of them since last years X Games, and it was great to see them both. In addition to all the events going on at the contest, we also held a big fundraiser throughout the weekend. As I mentioned in the last blog post, Mike and Debbie are about to take a journey to China, where Mike will undergo a series of treatments over 5 weeks. These treatments alone are going to cost about $40,000, a small price to pay in order to restore Mike's vision.

Throughout the weekend, we had a setup for them in the BFD.com booth, out in the sponsor village area of our event site. After each competition and FMX demo, a bunch of the athletes would come to the booth and do meet and greets with the fans. While this was going on, we had staff members selling raffle tickets throughout the weekend, or people could just stop by, chat with Mike and Debbie, and make donations. The raffle tickets were for BMX bikes. Eastern bikes, and Hoffman bikes donated 2 complete bikes each, and we raffled off 2 each day.

The raffle tickets for the bikes were a big hit, and we had some decent traffic through the booth. It was great to see other athletes and staff members rally to Mike's cause. Colleen and Debbie are our medical team for all of our ASWT events. They bought a ton of raffle tickets, and Colleen actually won one of the bikes. Guess what she did with it? She turned it right back over to the booth so we could sell more tickets to help out Mike. Simon Tabron purchased a ton of tickets, and actually passed them over to the folks in the Starbucks booth next door, and they actually won a bike. Maybe Starbucks will start doing bike deliveries in that area. Steve McCann even donated his entire prize money check from the weekend, to help Mike out!

It was a great weekend, but it went by very fast. Fuel TV was out and about all weekend, and on Sunday they allowed me to do an interview with Debbie and Mike, in order to help get their story out to the masses. The last thing I said to Mike was, "the next time I see you, you'll see me". Then I shook his hand, Debbie gave me a hug, and off they went. It was great to see them both, and I know they both enjoyed being around everyone, one last time before making their journey to China.

Now I need to thank a ton of people that helped make all this possible. First off, I want to thank all the ASA staff members and volunteers, who worked the booth all weekend and sold raffle tickets. I want to thank Colleen and Debbie, our event medics, for all their support and the insane amount of tickets they bought. Big shout outs to Simon Tabron and Steve McCann for their generosity, and I don't have a full list of all athletes who donated, but I thank every single one of you. I need to thank Brad J, my co-host for the weekend, for helping me to tell Mike's story on the mic all weekend, and for helping drive people to the booth. I need to thank Mat Hoffman for donating 2 of his bikes, and Mat was even cool enough to overnight ship them out, so we had them for the event. I also need to thank Leigh Ramsdell of Eastern Bikes for donating the other 2 bikes, and helping rally the cause this weekend. Last, and definitely not least, a huge thank you goes out to Dave Brumlow. Dave was behind the whole bike raffle concept, and he is the one who reached out to Mat and Leigh, and since this event, has gone out and secured more bike donations to help out Mike's cause. All of these people, plus countless others, are all pieces of one giant puzzle, to help out our friend. If I forgot anyone, I apologize.

Mike and Debbie leave on June 1st. You can donate via PAYPAL at mikevincentupdates@gmail.com. Check back here for updates on Mike's progress in China.
Jimmy C