Team Dassault’s Very Successful 10th Year of Charity Riding

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Team Dassault is a group of individuals from the Dassault Systems community (employees, customers, resellers, partners and friends) who join together for a number of cycling events benefiting various charity organizations. To learn more about Team Dassault and how to participate, sponsor, or contribute, please go to www.teamdassault.com

TeamDS10YearLogo
This was Team Dassault's 10th year of existence and we had an extremely successful year. I'll recap the different events that we participated in this year.

Pan-Massachusetts Challenge

The Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC) is our premiere event and the first event we ever participated in, with 6 riders in our inaugural year, 2002. This year, we had 78 riders, 7 "virtual" riders, 23 sponsors, numerous volunteers,  and hundreds of contributors. We raised just over $474,000 bringing our 10 year total to over $3.25 million.

PMC2011

The PMC (www.pmc.org) raises more money than any other athletic fundraising event in the USA with 100% of the money raised going directly to cancer research and treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through its Jimmy Fund. This year, there were over 5000 riders on routes varying from 25 to 192 miles. Last week, the PMC announced their annual results, raising $35 million in 2011, bringing the 32 year total to $338 million. We are happy to continue to be one of the largest teams in the PMC and look forward to participating again next year!

Minnesota MS150

Team Dassault's second largest charity event in 2011 was the Duluth to Twin Cities Minnesota MS150 ride. This MS150 team was started 6 years ago in 2007 independently by SolidWorks customers and had 5 riders in their first year. The team is still independently run by customers, with support from DS SolidWorks Corp., had 44 riders in the 2011 event, and raised over $27,800. Bike MS is the premier fundraising cycling series in the USA and benefits the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. 

MS150-2011

Members from this team also participate in numerous other events throughout the year. You can learn more about their efforts for next year at their 2012 MS150 Team Page. A special thanks to Steve Sutton and Clark Honzik, co-captains of this team for their efforts over the years.

Wisconsin Events

Members from the DS SolidWorks Corp. office in Madison, WI are also active members of Team Dassault. Although a small team, they make up for it in the number of events in which they participate throughout the year. This team raised over $2,600 in the following events:

QuadruPedal Spring Century Challenge for the Iowa County Humane Society

Tour de Cure Madison, WI for the American Diabetes Association

Trek 100 for Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer (The MACC Fund)

Janesville Pie Ride for the Janesville Morning Rotary

Bike the Barns for the Madison Area CSA Coalition

Tyranena Oktoberfest Bike Ride for Tomorrow's Hope

Madison2011

Thanks to Tom Stendel for heading up our Wisconsin team this year!

As you can see, we've had a very busy year with charity cycling events in 3 major locations throughout the USA. Thanks again to all of our riders, volunteers, sponsors, and contributors. We look forward to another successful year in 2012. Please follow the links throughout the blog post for more information about Team Dassault and you can also check us out on Facebook.

-Wilkie
Team Dassault Captain

Jim Wilkinson

Jim Wilkinson

Jim is Vice President, User Experience Architecture at Dassault Systemès SolidWorks Corporation