Tour de Pink is one of the major fundraising efforts for The Pink Ribbons Project, a Houston based organization that raises money to fight breast cancer through awareness and educational outreach initiatives. The Pink Ribbons Project supports proper screening for the medically under-served and under-insured population in the Greater Houston Area, and Tour de Pink is the first bike ride in Texas solely benefiting breast cancer awareness and education.

I have been involved with the ride since its inception in 2005, and I manage the logistical support for all of the Pink Pit Stops. The first year of the ride, “support” consisted of me and a guy named Bear, my 1995 Ford Ranger pickup truck, a 25′ moving truck with a lift, and 400 pounds of ice. By 2011, we had grown the logistics team to nine dedicated people, four route vans, a roamer and 4000 pounds of ice to support the 2000+ riders traveling seven routes.

Last year was Tour de Pink’s seventh, and an opportunity opened up for a company to step in as the presenting sponsor for the ride … After about six months of official employment with SoftLayer, I knew one thing for sure: If you have an idea, a plan or a cause that matters to you, it’s your responsibility to take that idea / plan / cause wherever it needs to go to get addressed — whether it’s an opportunity to improve a compliance process or a community cause. I stepped up and brought the idea to SoftLayer’s CEO.

In true SLayer fashion, he saw how important the cause was to me, and he quickly commitment SoftLayer’s support to the 2011 Tour de Pink.

In addition to the a financial commitment, we provided space in our downtown Houston offices for packet stuffing:

And the (infamous?) 3-Bars BBQ team towed the smoker down to Houston to cook up some fine “Q” for the annual Tour de Pink Kickoff Party:

SoftLayer VP of Business Applications Development DJ Harris even kicked off the opening ceremonies when the ride rolled around!

After an extremely successful 2011, SoftLayer has extended support for Tour de Pink to 2012! This year’s ride is scheduled for September 16, and it will starting from and coming back to the Prairie View A&M University campus. While SoftLayer is the major underwriter of this ride, it’s still a fundraiser, and that’s where the rest of us come in. The monies that go out into the community are raised through registration of individual riders and teams and from their collective fundraising efforts.

If you want to roll with the cool kids (and believe me, SoftLayer IS cool) and you plan on being in the Houston area mid-September, surf on over to www.tourdepink.org and sign up to join us!

I hope to see some of you out on the ride, but until then, may the wind be always at your back … and 3-Bars for Life!

-Val