Here are some of the awesome thank-you prizes provided by our donors.  Get your fundraising groove going and you may be the winner of a Specialized bike, a rafting trip in Glacier National Park from Glacier Guides, a cool Rickshaw commuter bag, Specialized helmets, Pedro’s bike tools and more!

2) $10,000 Fellowship Winners!  Spearfish Bike Collective in South Dakota and Project Desert Rock in New Mexico

The Focus Roots Awards, sponsored by Climate Riders, Nike and the Embassy of Denmark were a total success!  You can read about the artists and the athletes who won the award and will be traveling to Copenhagen for the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference here.

3) 40% off Nemo tents, pads for Climate Riders

Nemo Equipment is generously extending a killer deal on its award-winning gear. Check out the Nemo website, make a wishlist, and registered riders will soon receive an one-time order code!  Don’t miss the Losi 3P^TM Named Gear of the Year, Outside’s Summer 2009 Buyer’s Guide and voted Best All-Around 3-Person Tent, Backpacker’s 2009 Gear Guide.

4) The Hot Blog: Check out Jean Sideris of Union of Concerned Scientists on why Climate Ride is perfect timing for climate action.  You can meet Jean on CR ‘09–she’s riding on Team Lobstah Ladies from Boston!  And New Yorkers:  don’t miss the Bitches on Bikes NYC benefit party August 20th. More details here.

5) Climate Ride is bringing the traveling bike culture!

• The Great Salt Licks will be performing all week–as the first bluegrass band on bicycles!
  

Thanks to our Title Sponsor Brita and Presenting Sponsor the Embassy of Denmark and COP15–the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

New to Climate Ride?  See past newsletters on our blog.

Some of the people YOU will meet on Climate Ride…

Friis Arne Petersen - Denmark’s Ambassador to the US, host of the COP15 UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen Dec. 2009

Dr. James Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, renowned climatologist, Time Magazine top 100 influential people, and winner of the 2009 Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal, the highest honor of the American Meteorological Society.

Tom Burnett - 31 year old DC environmental science teacher - recovering from spinal cord injury and riding on behalf of disabled people to show that “we can overcome incredible adversity to do things that no one thought possible.”  Read his blog.

Colin Beavan aka NO IMPACT MAN - the man who lived one year with zero carbon impact–the extraordinary movie will be previewed on Climate Ride.  Watch the trailer.

Josh Dorfman, The Lazy Environmentalist -watch his new Sundance show.  He’s not too lazy to ride for the climate!

Alison Gannett - Founder Save Our Snow Foundation, voted Outside Magazine’s ‘08 Green All-Stars, US Champ Freeskier

Mike Tidwell - inspiring activist, writer and documentary filmmaker, President Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and his own home is fueled almost entirely by wind, solar and corn power

Bracken Hendricks - senior fellow at Center for American Progress; an architect of clean-energy portions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act;  founding executive director of the Apollo Alliance

Wood Turner - the one climate scorekeeper you need to know, Executive Director Climate Counts

Dr. Ben Strauss - associate director at Climate Central, founding board member of Grist.org and founding board member of the Environmental Leadership Program and Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University.

The youngest rider is an 8th grader from Seattle and the oldest rider is an 82 year old woman from NYC who has been a bike commuter for 50 years.

See a slideshow of the 2008 ride.