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2025 Tour de Cypress Update

The Tour de Cypress 21st Annual Bike Ride registration opened Early Registration on 1/1/2025 with a $35.00 registration fee which ended 1/15/2025. Great news...We surpassed participant registration for all previous years, see chart below to see the number of people registered on each date:

This Year	Last Year	2023	Days Out
1/19/2025	1/21/2024	1/15/2023	90
82	68	26
2/18/2025	2/20/2024	2/14/2023	60
	84	42

Before ride:

Please update your T-Shirt size on ClubRunner prior to April 1st.
- A physical list for update will be available at a Rotary meeting nearer Ride Day
- Give your size to Nathan Reves or Diana Duckworth to update
- Comment to this story with your T-Shirt size
Like and Share information about TdC on your social media platforms (TdC Facebook Page)

Thanks for all you do in making this event successful for our club and community!!

MV Rotary Motivational Scholarship Program

The motivational scholarship program was started by a group of Rotarians, in the early 90’s who wanted to encourage at-risk kids to stay in school throughout high school and begin college. The scholarships are awarded to students at their 8^th grade graduation. Students are selected by teachers and counselors based on those with a financial need and are at-risk of dropping out of school. Additionally, selected students and their guardians are required to sign a contract stating they will stay out of trouble and be active members of the high school Rotary Interact Club.

The scholarship program initially awarded one female and one male student but has grown since inception and has awarded as many as 20 scholarships in past years. Another change, since inception, is a partnership with Northeast Texas Community College, which was instrumental in making additional scholarships available each year. The partnership agreement entails Rotary paying one year of student tuition and related expenses, then, if the student remains in good standing and maintains a minimum GPA, NTCC picks up the tab for year two.

Past recipients have gone on to attend medical programs to become doctors or nurses while others have obtained business degrees and work in the finance, etc. Some past recipients struggled and did not complete the program only to return to school later after they matured. It has been observed that even if a student didn’t complete the program, the program still provided opportunities leading most to improve their lives and financial position in a positive manner. Several of our students have returned to share their story at a Rotary meeting or other Rotary function.

Make a donation today by visiting https://square.link/u/02LLJIqz or by scanning

2024 Post Ride Update

A lot can be said about TdC 2024, the 20th anniversary of ride...

We have a sponsor who named our ride, Duke's TA, this is a five year commitment
Our registrations were at an all-time high a week out from the bike ride and participation would likely have reached 350 if we had not had rain
Total registration was 231 with five of those signing up on ride day
First time to call an hour start time rain delay
First time to close any of the routes, all but 10 mile were closed due to high water on roadways
7 people chose to ride the 10 mile route and left the square at 10a

In spite of the rain, this one is in the books and will likely be the most memorable for all who attended, participants and volunteers. Overall, participants have had positive things to say as well. Many of those who signed up this year were first timers to our ride, too!

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2023 TdC visit HH100

A group from the Rotary Club of Mount Vernon's Tour de Cypress bike ride traveled to Wichita Falls on Thursday, 24 August, to promote the TdC 20th Anniversary ride coming up in April 2024. This was the first time in about ten years that a group has gone to the HotterN'Hell Bike Ride to promote Tour de Cypress Bike Ride. In the past, our presence at HH100 helped us get the word out and attract new people to our ride.

For the HH100 three day event, we decided to promote our ride by offering a HH100 discount. We are excited to report that 12 cyclists signed up for our 20th anniversary ride in April 2024!! While that doesn't sound like many, this is the first time for us to even attempt signing up participants before January 1.

A Bit About HH100

Back in 1982, Wichita Falls was celebrating their centennial. A group of bicyclists proposed a bicycle ride, 100 miles in 100-degree heat to celebrate 100 years and came up with the name HotterN'Hell Hundred. It is the largest 100-mile ride in the nation and typically has in excess of 10K riders EVERY year. There are also hundreds of volunteers and it add approximately 5M dollars to the local economy. The CamelBak hydration pack was even invented by a participant of the 1989 HH100 (who knew?)!

TdC "Meredith Mile"

The “Meredith Mile” is inspired by our local football legend, “Dandy” Don Meredith, who played for Mount Vernon High School in the 1950’s and later quarterbacked for SMU and the Dallas Cowboys. Don Meredith was an original member of the Monday Night Football broadcast team and additionally starred in several films and TV series.

For more about Don Meredith, check out this link Don Meredith - Wikipedia.

ClubRunner

The Rotary Club of Mount Vernon has utilized ClubRunner for our web presence for several years. Considering we have six new members this year, it seems a good time to revisit using ClubRunner and introducing some of the options that can benefit all of us.

I encourage you to check out both the ClubRunner phone app and the web version, this is a very useful tool and a great way to keep up with our Rotary club. Please do keep in mind that some features are not available when/if you use the Chrome browser on a Windows PC, suggested browser for Windows is MS Edge.

RYLA

ROTARY YOUTH LEADERSHIP AWARDS (RYLA)

Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is Rotary's leadership training program for high school students.
RYLA emphasizes leadership, citizenship, and personal growth, and aims to:

Demonstrate Rotary's respect and concern for youth
Provide an effective training experience for selected youth and potential leaders
Encourage leadership of youth by youth
Recognize publicly young people who are rendering service to their communities

In 2023, the Mount Vernon Rotary Club sponsored four eleventh grade students to attend the RYLA weekend in February. The weekend spent at RYLA is an outstanding opportunity for students to fine-tune their leadership skills in a fun, extremely educational environment.

School counselors nominate eleventh graders from Mount Vernon High School for attendance. The final decision on sponsorships for this program is made by the Rotary Club RYLA Committee.

Eleventh grade students interested in RYLA should meet with their counselor for more information.