What a difference a Livestrong Day makes

The goal for Livestrong Day was to recruit 500 new Challenge participants and I think everyone was a little bit surprised when the final number was released: 1,518 new participants signed up for the Challenge on Livestrong Day.
Amazing!

In Washington, D.C. 200 advocates met with national leaders to call for a change in the way we are raising awareness and funding for the cancer fight... but there were events all over the US and other countries, too.

For example, I spent my day at a hospital and talked to people who are fighting cancer right now. Later I just handed out Livestrong wristbands and it's so funny to see the reaction of people when they get suspicious of a free gift. Some didn't want to accept it because they thought I wanted money in exchange, some gave me the almost expected talk about their opinion of Lance Armstrong- (nothing good, let me tell you, but I'm used to defending the Foundation against all those talks about doping going on in Germany right now) and some didn't understand the meaning behind the wristband at all.

The funniest reply I got was from people at our local customs agency- of course the package of new wristbands was stopped in Frankfurt and I had to go to the custom agency. I told them a little bit about the LAF and about the fight against cancer and they actually asked me if I thought the wristband was a cure for cancer! Can you believe it? I think they were trying to make sure I wasn't some kind of charlatan.

Livestrong Day made me reach my first fundraising goal, too. Yep, I've officially surpassed the $500 mark- a little later than I hoped, but considering all the difficulties in my fundraising at the moment (the German cycling world is shocked with the news of years of doping in the Telecom Team- and more news about other European Teams and famous cyclists with similar results are expected) I am proud of getting there at all.

Anyway, there are some more Livestrong Day pictures and short video clips