As Covid restrictions lighten up, things are beginning to return more back to normal in terms of public service events. All of the events in the month of April are still canceled to the best of my knowledge.
The next big event is going to be the National MS society’s bike ride. Instead of being a two-day event, it’s only going to be a one day event. They will have the usual starting points in Houston, but they’re going to have a starting point in La Grange Texas as well. The destination will be Kyle Stadium in Bryan college Station at the Texas A&M University.
Ham Radio Operators & other volunteers will be used to staff SAG vans, from the San Antonio and Austin area, for the La Grange start.
Volunteers from the Houston area will take care of the three locations in Houston. The three locations in Houston and the one location from LaGrange will eventually merge on the route up closer to Bryan college Station. Houston will not be coming to LaGrange.
There will be new stringent requirements for those driving and riding in SAG vans due to Covid of course. Precautions will include only putting up to three or four riders and a van at a time, having the riders put their own bicycles in the back of the van, instead of the navigator or driver handling them. Everybody being required to wear masks while inside the vehicle. Plus of course the driver navigator having to sanitize the seats and door handles every time they drop off riders.
Ham Radio Operators are also needed for breakpoints. Break points have their own set of special precautions to enforce social distancing and wearing mass when around the riders or other volunteers.
Volunteers driving SAG vans will still pick up their vehicles the Friday before and return them on Sunday after the event is over. My understanding is that San Antonio and Austin will still pick theirs up at our usual locations.
One major change that you can anticipate, is there will probably not be any paid hotel rooms for Friday night or Saturday. Since there is only a one day event and 20/20 was pretty much dead fundraising wise, the association has had to greatly reduce their staff and cut corners to save money. They do not have the budget that is normally available for this ride. Volunteers may have to pay for their own rooms, or make it one hell of a long day. I’m planning to pay for my own hotel room. They’re supposed to be getting this information about some discounts available in the area. Since the number of riders will be down tremendously and LaGrange won’t be swamped with 10 or 15,000 people, the rooms ought to be a lot more reasonable than in previous years.
I am the lead contact person for San Antonio volunteers. If you’ve not been getting the emails from Mike Firenza, and you still want to get involved knowing what I’ve just told you, please contact me. My contact information is the bottom of this website. I do not answer phone calls early in the morning. Email would be the best method, followed by text messaging.
As of April 7th, I’m still needing 4 more SAG Teams (Driver & Navigator) for the La Grange start on May 1st. Please contact me via email, info@sanantoniohams.org, or text message at 210-771-7075. Thanks.
N5NTG | 
06 1st, 2021| 
