This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Each year Left Hand Brewing Company sponsors Team Left Hand in Bike MS. According to Team Left Hand and Foundation Events Coordinator, Sara Barfoot, "Bike MS is the largest cycling fundraising series in the world. It is bigger than any other cycling event for any other nonprofit."
The event is so large that it has raised over $1 billion dollars in support of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (MS Society), a worldwide organization supporting research and programming for people with MS.
Left Hand Brewing contributes a great deal of time, funds and manpower in support of multiple sclerosis (MS). Their support goes beyond the five different Bike MS rides and six Team Left Hand teams across the U.S. The brewery also developed and released a beer, Wheels Gose Round, in May 2018 and donated $1 from every pint purchased at the Left Hand Tasting Room in Longmont.
Additionally, the brewing company worked with their distributor to get other businesses across the country to help donate to the MS Society from the proceeds made from the beer.
This effort means so much to Left Hand Brewing that they created a paid position to support coordinating Bike MS across all of Left Hand's six teams. Sara Barfoot is passionate and enthusiastic about not only her position at the brewery, but also her role in supporting the fundraising efforts to find a way to "crush MS."
In the time that Barfoot has worked as the Team Left Hand coordinator, she has seen Team Left Hand become the third largest team represented across the country, behind only BP and Noble Corporation. BP ranks first by raising $120,000 more than Team Left Hand.
In 2018, Team Left Hand alone reached an all-time high of $730,000 for the MS Society. This beat their tally of $710,301 in 2017. Barfoot states that the goal for 2019 is $750,000 and she is confident that the team will reach it.
Bike MS hosts 72 rides across the country at different times of the year. In total they have around 80,000 participants each year. Team Left Hand contributed around 669 participants in 2018.
You are probably asking yourself how Left Hand Brewing, a Longmont, Colorado brewer, got started in such a large fundraising endeavor? That is a very simple story.
When Chris Lennert, current COO of Left Hand Brewing Company, was the sales director, he was approached by his wife's friend. This friend had been diagnosed with MS. Knowing the Lennert was a mountain bike rider, the friend suggested that Leonard get a street bike and try Bike MS. He agreed and enjoyed the event so much that when the event approached the following year, Lennert asked Left Hand Brewing to sponsor a team.
"I think we all know people who have been affected by MS and it is a cause that we have taken under our wing," says Jill Preston, director of marketing at Left Hand Brewing Company.
The first year, Team Left Hand consisted of 25 riders participating in the Bike MS Colorado ride. Team Left Hand existed only in Colorado until 2012 and has since expanded to participate in rides in the Carolinas, Florida, Ohio, Texas and California as well. Each location has one of the six teams that make up Team Left Hand.
"Our ultimate goal is to get to ten teams doing ten rides every year, raising collectively $1 million," states Barfoot.
However, Left Hand does not take on that task lightly. It is important to the brewery that each of their teams are fully supported at each event. This includes beer, a tent, food and lots of volunteers to help prepare for the ride.
"We feel what is going to be most impactful is taking care of our team, because if we take care of our people and they bring in their extended family, they are going to tell about all the cool stuff we are doing and then they are going to bring their circle into it as well. So, we are trying to grow awareness as much as possible through taking care of people so they keep coming back," says Barfoot.
The Bike MS Colorado ride is a two-day event that covers 150 miles. In addition to supplying beer, a contribution of over $100,000, a volunteer support team and $730,000 in fundraising dollars, Left Hand Brewing also encourages its employees to participate in the rides themselves. In 2018, 14 out of the 100 Left Hand Brewing Company employees rode in Bike MS Colorado.
"We aren't just the beer sponsor. We are actually putting our money where our mouth is and putting our butts in the seats too," says Barfoot.
Barfoot herself participated in her first Bike MS ride this year. It was the only part of the Bike MS events that she had not participated in. "It was really important to me to support the mission fully, as much as I possibly can, by getting out there and putting in the work and raising the money along with it."
So she signed up to ride in the Bike MS Colorado ride. She stated that she is not a cyclist and since she lives in Florida, she is used to the flat land but she wanted to give it a try anyway. She rode for 75 miles the first day and felt as though volunteering on the second day might be better than trying to outrun the Colorado summer storms in the mountains. Although she didn't complete the full experience of the ride, she considers it a personal achievement and encourages everyone to give it a try.
"One of the really cool things about Bike MS is that people don't think they can do it. The really big thing that the National MS Society hammers is that these are rides not races. They are the celebration at the end of all of this hard work we have been doing to raise money, to raise awareness for the cause, so it is really the celebration," says Barfoot.
She goes on to explain that each ride is broken into 10-12 mile stretches and each break contains a rest area full of volunteers and people with MS supplying you with drinks, snacks and most of all encouragement that keeps you motivated to tackle another 10-12 miles.
Barfoot is one among 659 other riders who believe in this cause. So much so, that Team Left Hand has vowed that they "won't stop riding or fundraising until MS stands for Mystery Solved."
