Coasting For Kids 2009: 8/26 at Cedar Point

Sorry my name is Carsten Anderson and I just sent you a repley to the email you sent.

I am staying at Breakers Express.

And thanks again, Carrie.

For those who don't get the email newsletter, anyone who joins the club today, we'll donate $20 of the $25 to GKTW. To donate directly, visit the giving page link. (Go to home page, then the Coasting for Kids link. The link is near the bottom.)

We're over $7k so far!

Jeff said:
If we get a solid response, it may very well spread to other parks. And we'll need some help organizing it too, so if you happen to live in distant cities, keep that in mind.

I'd be interested in participating if you had it at SFGAm - I don't know what we could marathon there, though...

Grand total for the day, after the Gemini crew graciously passed the hat around, ended up being $7,823! That is so crazy amazing. Thank you to everyone who had anything to do with this... it was a success well beyond what I expected.

Will write up more tonight (or tomorrow).

That is an awesome amount of money raised by about 30 people considering the "niche" nature of the charity and the event! Hopefully more of these events will happen in the future.

redman822 said:
I'd be interested in participating if you had it at SFGAm - I don't know what we could marathon there, though...

All we need is just one train on Raging Bull. Bringing this event to Chicago would be humbling. As I said earlier in this thread, a coaster marathon and raising money for a remarkable charity is a win-win! I am glad to see Coasterbuzz going out and supporting raising money for this charity. This is a very remarkable community to be a part of!

Thank you Jeff, and all my marathoning ride buddies. Today was a great day for a great charity.

Count me in for the next Coasting for Kids.

I finally got off the fence and joined CB yesterday once I read the newsletter with Jeff's generous offer to give $20 of the $25 fee to this charity if one joined yesterday. Could not pass it up. Thank you, and well done.

It was a blast. Though, I am pretty sore today. The few who stayed on the entire time managed to get 129 laps. I kept track on a tally counters. It was funny, every few laps someone would ask me where we were at. I think the people who took a few breaks knew how many laps they missed and kept track by simply knowing how far behind they were. I think there were at least 3 people including myself who stayed on the whole time.

In the morning, they had some very good pastries, coffee and juice. The cinnamon roll was almost the size of a pillow. ;) It was very good. Eventually, they had some boxed lunches for us. Some people utilized that opportunity to take a break, get some food and use the bathroom.

A little while after we started, everyone got off the ride for a group photo. We were all riding on the red side in the morning. We got 50 laps in before they asked us to move to the Blue side. They wanted us on that side once the park was open. They had us exit and go around to get to the Blue side. I used this opportunity to very quickly take a bathroom break. I made it back an on with about a minute to spare. The only other time we had to get off was shortly after the public started riding. The Blue train had a limiter problem. We were down for 20 or 30 minutes. I took that opportunity to grab one of the boxed lunches. Unfortunately for the train behind us, they sat in the break run through the entire down time and didn't really get a break.

Throughout the day we got several funny looks from guests. Many people asked us what we were doing. Many people wanted to know why they couldn't ride on the Blue side. So, I think the knowledge of "Give Kids the World" was significantly spread throughout the day. Many people cheered us on as the Excellent Gemini crew posted updates on our progress fairly regularly. With all of us being on blue and the GP all being on red, I think I would be accurate in saying that this was probably one of the most interactive days in a long time for Gemini. We had almost everyone slapping hands on every run. Lots of Taunting back and forth. It was a blast.

During one of the runs, the crew posted a challenge to see which made the trains run faster, rowing or the head fins. It was the GP's responsibility to Row while it was our job to do the head fins. Our entire train kept their fins up for the entire ride, save for a few hand slapping opportunities. The GP only had a few people rowing. Regardless, we were on blue with ZERO TRIMS ALL DAY. So suffice it to say, we won about 95% of the time or better. The crew had been releasing our breaks anywhere from 3 to 6 seconds later than the GP to try and time the turn arounds better and give the GP a shot at winning.

At the end of the day we all got together on one train with all the people from GKTW and had one final run. We took another group photo and headed off the ride. They gave us all a certificate, a bag and a pin. I might be forgetting something. That was pretty much it. The GKTW people were very thankful to CoasterBuzz and Cedar Point. GKTW expressed a great interest in expanding this next year to other Cedar Fair properties. I'm sure other people will have more to add. But, I'm tired and I really should be trying to catch up at work right now. :)

To quote the Gemini crew, "Red only wins when Chuck Norris crys. And, Chuck Norris never crys."

Susie mentioned that they continue to get donations, and now we're over $8k. Insane. You guys up on the train led to walk-up donations on the midway.

As Jason mentioned above, Blue train was running trimless. So when ever anyone taunted us that Red train was going to win, I told them that if they loose they need to give $5 to GKTW.

It seems that some honored the wager. :)

Congratulations on exceeding 8k thats pretty impressive. I wanted to do it, but i had to work, and also a class last night, so if i get the time if you decide to do it next year that would be awesome.

I just wanted to say thanks for a great day everyone! I had a blast! Got 125 laps in... boy was it tough getting out of bed this morning. :)

Thanks Jeff for organizing this event, we all had a great time, and raised some serious money for GKTW. Thanks to all who donated their time and money.

It was an awesome day, and quite possibly one of the best days I've had at CP. The interaction was great. I think that we were riding for charity got more than a few GP to loosen that death grip on the lap bar and reach out for a slap, and the smiles on the faces of some of the littlest riders when we stretched extra hard to reach their hands was priceless.

Definitely thanks to everyone that came out, the Gemini crew, Jeff, CP and GKTW for a great time.

I posted a handful of photos on FB...

What an awesome event for an awesome cause. Major props to all who participated!!

I only did 105 laps on G-money, 42 consecutive without getting off which was about 3 hours straight. 78.25 miles traveled. I had a horrible time trying to fall asleep last night. Every time I closed my eyes I felt like I was still on that ride!

I am very sore to say the least. It was a great event, we raised awareness about Give Kids The World and raised a lot of money. I also take my hat off again to the Gemini crew who were truly amazing. They are the number one crew at the Point in my book. Thanks guys!