Our own Charlie Barnes sent through this thoughtful message to the organizing team for the 2024 Tour de Guelph event:
"I wanted to thank everyone for making the Tour de Guelph event possible and all the hard work y'all did for this great cause. My contribution was fundraising and cycling 25 Km. My donors helped me reach $28,425 this year and my total over the past 7 years has reached $102,425! An all time high by a country mile! I had 193 donors this year, from across 9 time zones from San Francisco to Rotterdam! Every contributor to my ride who donated $100 or more will get a bottle of our very own Cedarcrest Farm maple syrup. Our team, the Guelph Triathlon Club, raised $44,300 topping all other teams. Looking forward to 2025!"
Charlie is 86 years old, and has been a Rotarian for 5 years, continuing decades of community service and raising funds for causes such as Guelph General Hospital and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Final tallies are still being done with donations to the 2024 ride closing as of July 3rd, but it would appear that the 2024 goal of $200,000 was definitely in danger of being exceeded, thanks to the efforts of the record 780 riders that included fundraisers extraordinaire like Charlie!
Charlie's maple syrup "thank you" to donors of $100 or more