Lip Sync Battle: Raising Funds For MS

2016.

The first year of “Team NEO” for the Colorado Bike MS, June 25-26, 2016. We’ll be riding from Westminster to Ft. Collins on day one, and return to Westminster on the second day. This ride is the big fundraiser for the Colorado-Wyoming chapter of the National MS Society.

As the team captain, I like to work with the team to have some kind of group fundraiser. It brings the team together for the cause, creates additional awareness, and helps out some of the team members who might struggle to get their fundraising minimum.

Earlier this year I was sitting at my kitchen table watching YouTube clips of Jimmy Fallon lip sync challenges with celebrities (Emma Stone is killer!) and it popped into my head

– I should have a lip sync contest fundraiser! It’s different and will hopefully be a blast.

(It was!!)

I got the team together and didn’t get any objection, so the planning began. I found a venue at no cost at a brewpub that some friends of mine recently opened. They serve food in addition to drinks, and had a PA system we could use, so some potentially complicated logistics became simple.

We started getting the word out for people to sign up ahead of time so they could prepare their songs and I could have the playlist ready to go. They’d do their thing, we’d have judges score and the top three would go into a final round to select the overall winner. We even found a few “local celebrities” to graciously donate their time to be the judges.

Our Judges were:

Tim Bergsten co-founder of PikesPeakSports.us and writer for The Independent
Katie Compton 12x Cyclocross National Champion
Hunter Kemper 4x Olympian in Triathlon!!!

Photo of Tim Bergsten, Nicole Odell, Katie “Fn” Comption, and Hunter Kemper at the judges table for the Team NEO Bike MS lip sync contest fundraiser on APril 21, 2016. — L to R: Tim Bergsten, Nicole Odell, Katie “Fn” Comption, and Hunter Kemper

We combined the event with a silent auction, and the first ever

Team NEO Lip Sync Contest and Silent Auction to Benefit the National MS Society

was born.

I had no idea how many people would sign up, but it turns out we had a great line-up of 11 acts! The silent auction was also robust, including a Katie Compton signed jersey, a framed 2012 Olympic Triathlon poster signed by all the 2012 triathletes, and a cruiser bike from Project ReCycle, as well as many gift certificates to local businesses.

Project ReCycle (http://projectrecycle.org) provided us with a cruiser bike to auction off. — Thanks to Project ReCycle we had this sweet cruiser to auction!

The day of the event (April 21) happened to be the day Prince’s passing was hitting the news, so I had a last-minute request from a local morning show DJ, Goose from 92.9 PEAK FM, to do a song as a tribute. Absolutely!

And he knocked it out of the park with Diamonds and Pearls.

Songs ranged from The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy to the Humpty Dance to The Green Acres theme song to Wanna Be by the Spice Girls. I was amazed at the effort the contestants put into it! Some were individuals, some were teams with choreographed dance moves. The venue was packed, we were cracking up and in awe at the quality of the performances! The judges scored each act and the top 3 went into the final round.

Steve Stowell, owner of Triple S Brewing, performing “Sweet Dreams are Made of These” at the 2016 Team NEO Bike MS Lip Sync Contest and Silent Auction. — Steve Stowell, owner of Triple S Brewing, performing “Sweet Dreams are Made of These” (with his wife Sarah, not in the shot)

Katie performing El Taxi by Pitbull at the 2016 Team NEO Bike MS Lip Sync Contest and Silent Auction — Katie performing El Taxi by Pitbull

The Spice Girls and eventual winners of the 2016 Team NEO Bike MS Lip Sync Contest and Silent Auction. — The Spice Girls and eventual winners!

Except for a bit of a sound system glitch at the beginning that was fixed by a cable Goose had in his car, it went really well.

The silent auction brought in over $1000, we had $1 from each beer sold, door prize ticket sales, and “tips” for the performers to choose the People’s Choice award winners brought in $2114 total to Team NEO’s Bike MS fundraising, which is 10% of our team goal of $20,000.

The final round didn’t disappoint, either! The judges had a hard time picking the winner. They took their job very seriously, and what do you expect from world-class athletes and a guy dressed as Ozzy Osbourne for the night?!

I’d like to thank all the companies that either provided a donation for the event or are supporting our team in some capacity: