Forest City Cycling Challenge

The Forest City Cycling Challenge (FCCC), sponsored by Lerners Lawyers, is a new cycling event in the London, Ontario that is raising funds for youth mental health. Proceeds from the event will go to the MINDS project at St. Joseph’s Health Care London – dedicated to tackling complex mental health challenges facing youth in our region.

As far as the event itself is concerned, COVID has forced us to organize it as a 'virtual' event for this year (we hope to have a more traditional 'in-person' event in 2022). What this means, for this year, is that we will have a list of participating locations (sponsors, tourist sites, coffee shops, etc.) that we will provide to participants, with the expectation that you can visit those locations as part of your selected route. We will provide suggested routes for all participants by mid-May (although there is no need to follow the routes if you would prefer to create your own). The suggested routes will be approximately 25k (for the 'TVP' level), 30-40k (for the 'city' level) and 80-100km (for the 'county' level).

While the event location is listed as 'Harris Park, London', you can actually start and end your rides anywhere at all and at anytime during the week of June 5-13, 2021.

REGISTRATION:

Event registration ($25 + transaction processing fees (less than $4) ) covers the basic entry to the event. Beyond that, there will be 'incentives' at various fundraising levels:

• At the 'basic' level (the cost of entry to the event), all participants will receive a minimum of: an event t-shirt, event sticker and Hammer Nutrition sample pack.
• For $100+ of funds raised, participants will also receive an FCCC 'gaiter' ('buff') and will be eligible to enter draws for additional prizes.
• For $300+ of funds raised, participants will also receive an official FCCC cycling jersey.
• For $600+ of funds raised, participants will receive a free 'VIP' entry to next year's event (approx. value $100). [Next year's event is expected to include the usual type of swag, an in-person 'mass-start' ride on a defined route, rest stops with snacks, food at the end of the ride and more!!)]
• This year's top fundraiser will win a Weekend Stay for 2 at Tailwinds B&B in Hillsburgh, Ontario (once COVID restrictions are lifted).

Everyone who registers before midnight on April 30 will have one entry in a draw for an official FCCC event cycling jersey.

Images of the official t-shirt, gaiter and jersey are shown below. Note that these can also be purchased in our store, without having to meet the fundraising requirements.

EVENT PROCEEDS

Proceeds from the event will support youth mental health through the Mental Health Incubator for Disruptive Solutions (MINDS), a social innovation lab focused on finding new ways to improve mental health care for youth. Your support will enable the MINDS team to develop new resources and tools that will improve access to care for youth experiencing mental illness. During this period of heightened social isolation and uncertainty, your support of mental health initiatives is more important than ever.

We are putting together a template that can be used by participants to request support from friends, family, co-workers, etc. and hope to make it available by mid-April, at the latest.

EVENT NOTES:

There are three sub-events but there is really no difference between them - this is just information that the organizers will use to build future in-person events. If you decide to change sub-events, there is no need to inform the organizers.