Letter From the President Letter From the President
Letter from the President
In 2013, World T. E. A. M. Sports celebrates a major milestone – 20 years of successful operations.
Looking back, we’ re immensely proud. We climbed Nepal’ s Lobuche East, scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro and pedaled across the continent. We rode bicycles around the world, conquered the rolling hills to Gettysburg, explored the wilderness in upstate New York and rafted raging rivers in Colorado’ s backcountry.
We completed these adventures alongside athletes many call disabled. Some have lost limbs or suffered grievous injury in service to their country. Others simply were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Still others were born with their obstacles.
Many of us came to our first event expecting to help these participants over figurative and literal hills. We saw the poles on the backs of the hand cycles and instinctively grouped together to push. But through the weather and adversity, we understood these individuals pushed us, driving us to take a fresh look at ourselves and at them. That’ s when we realized they truly are Exceptional Athletes.
By any benchmark, 2012 was a great year for us. We met our goals and are poised for greater growth. Our events touched the largest group in recent history, with 500 participants in Face of America, our two-day bike ride to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; 14 five-person teams in Colorado’ s Adventure TEAM Challenge; and 14 disabled veterans riding 3,698 miles over 62 days for our Sea to Shining Sea bike ride. We doubled the number of teenaged children in New York’ s Adventure Team Challenge and tripled our participating veterans in President George W. Bush’ s W100 mountain bike ride in Texas.
We also built a stronger organizational foundation. We moved our offices to Holbrook, New York, where our lead director, Lon Dolber, donated facilities and support, grew our public profile through a creative use of social media and grassroots efforts, and launched a supporter-savvy CRM system.
Finally, despite a challenging national economy, we ended 2012 with strong finances, backed by support from longstanding and new corporate sponsors, participants and volunteers.
Thank you to everyone who contributed time, money, and physical effort to our cause. For World T. E. A. M. Sports, we see a bright future. We expect a vigorous schedule in 2013 and beyond that will challenge as well as inspire.
I hope you will all remain active participants in our journey.
Photo: Paul Tyler has served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of World T. E. A. M. Sports since March, 2012.
Photograph by Jeff Sparling
Paul Tyler Chief Executive Officer and President Holbrook, New York March 12, 2013
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