To the editor:

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Whidbey General Hospital Foundation, I want to thank all the volunteers who helped make the 2011 Tour de Whidbey a success.

We were blessed with a beautiful day and 500 registered riders.  With the support of our volunteers, sponsors, contributors and riders, the event raised $60,000 for the hospital.

We want to acknowledge the dedicated members of the Island County Amateur Radio Club and the Island Wings motorcycle group for doing such a fantastic job of monitoring the routes. We are so grateful for their care and concern for the safety of our riders.

Some other behind-the-scenes folks that make the ride possible are the teams who are out the week before the ride marking the pavement with route arrows and putting up route signs. Thank you John Hartley, John Babcock, Brian Dowling, Ron Still, Laura and Adrian Tarasoff, Kellen and Ani Field, Skagit Valley College Honor Society members, Karen Martin, John Wishart and Randy White.

The riders enthusiastically thank the folks who provide the meals before and after their ride, and the wonderful breakstation hospitality. Windermere Real Estate agents arrived at 5:30 a.m. Saturday to put on the pancake and sausage breakfast for the riders, and the ladies of the Polly Harpole Guild stepped up for the afternoon chili feeds.

The breakstation heroes this year were from Whidbey Vision Care, Oak Harbor Church of Christ, Whidbey Island Bank, Coldwell Banker Tara Properties, Sweetwater Creek Farm Studio, as well as hospital employee volunteers from the Diagnostic Imaging and Medical Ambulatory Care/Oncology departments and Employee Council. A special thanks goes to volunteer Kyle Waterman for traveling between breakstations all day Saturday to provide support, and to Gail and Ken Forrester for holding down the fort at the Greenbank Farm all day and picking up riders with bicycle issues.

The Tour de Whidbey is a community effort to support Whidbey General Hospital. We are humbled by the generosity of our community. Thank you.

LAURA BLANKENSHIP

Executive Director

Whidbey General Hospital Foundation