Nearly 150 Gardere Wynne Sewell attorneys, clients, friends and family members will bike a scenic 164-mile trek from Frisco to Fort Worth as part of the Bike MS: Sam's Club Ride on April 30 to May 1, 2011.
This marks the seventh year the Gardere Gearheads team has participated in the two-day ride, and the team has raised more than $57,500 so far for this year for multiple sclerosis research and treatment. Cumulatively, over the past seven years, the team has raised almost $490,000 and was awarded with the "Third Highest Fundraising Team Award" in 2008 for their dedication and efforts.
This year's team includes at least 14 family units – husbands and wives, parents and children, or siblings – who are supporting the cause either by riding together, fundraising together or by volunteering to support the riders. One such team is Robert and Greg Greenberg who have rode with Gardere for the last four years.
"It's a personal thing for us," says Robert. "We ride to support Greg's wife Lauri who was diagnosed with MS about eight years ago. We both also have several good friends who suffer from MS and we appreciate the team support that the Gearheads provide in helping to make a great ride even more fun."
"As a firm, we stand behind our commitment to the communities we serve," says attorney Keith V. Novick, a partner in the firm's Dallas office and team captain of the Gardere Gearheads. "We are happy to spend two days on a bike if it means possibly helping the estimated 20,000 Texans living with MS."
In its 10th year of participation, Gardere's Houston bike team, Team Gardere, consisting of 112 members, completed the two-day, 183-mile BP MS150 from Houston to Austin on April 16-17, and has raised more than $128,000 to date and more than $1.2 million cumulatively.
Gardere's involvement with the MS Society began as a way to show support for one of its own, John Pearson, of counsel in the firm's Houston office and former board chair for the National MS Society Lone Star Chapter, who lives with MS. Mr. Pearson has ridden in several MS 150 events, including this year's Houston event.
