Way to do sis!
I attempted to capture all the emails Sharon sent over the summer about this to save them for posterity!
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*) Sharon's YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YQvJhPyw3s
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*) From: Sharon Colantonio
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 7:45 PM
St Louis to Bay Village, Bay Village to Rochester Hills, Rochester Hills to Waunakee, Waunakee to Chicago, Chicago to DC Flight, DC to Chicago Flight, Chicago to Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne to St Paul, St Paul to St Louis, St Louis to Peoria, Peoria to Fairfax Flight, Fairfax to West Hartford, West Hartford to Appleton Flight, Appleton to Fond du Lac, Fond du Lac to Merrillville, Merrillville to St Louis: Total: more than 4000 driven just to locations Total: 4 flights So after driving more than 4,000 miles just to arrive at each camp and flying on four flights I am finally back in St Louis. I have gone through three pair of shoes and acquired more than 8 new t-shirts. I have found out that cloths weigh more than you think and if you don’t think a medium size suitcase can contain more than 50lbs well I’m here to tell you it can. It’s amazing how many layers you can put on just to get under that mark…and no I didn’t take a pictures of Sharon the marshmallow woman ;) Needless to say I didn’t get cold on the plain!After leaving West Hartford, CT I arrived in WI. Where Heidi and I joined back up for one finally hurrah! We arrived on the scene to find out we would be working in the “Cow Palace”, see picture in attachment. Talk about crazy! And yes the place lived up to its reputation. It smelled like COWS, and it made all the more since as we found out in the week prior to camp they had the county fair there and can you guess who stayed there? If you guessed cows you are right!!!! This was a much smaller camp; in fact it was the smallest of my summer totaling 14 participants. Of the 14, 11 learned to ride, this was just crazy! I have attached a few more pictures for your viewing pleasure. One is of Heidi getting beet up by two of the boys. She told one of them we sold his bike so the other boy jumped in to restrainer her while the other beet her up. It was all very cute! So just a few final numbers on the summer: Total Participants in the camps I supervised: 231 Total Participants who left as riders: 188 For a success rate of 81% In the mean time it’s back to reality for me and time to return to my real job! I can’t wait until next summer! I hope you have enjoyed your travels, next year posses to bring even more trips as there are rumors we may go international at some point in the next 12 months, we’ve had over 10 requests thus far!!! Take care and happy school year to all! Sharon “A community that excludes even one of its own is no community at all!”
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It has been a crazy few weeks. If you’ve every played an old school pin ball machine…imagine how the ball feels. Yup that’s about right…I departed from the St Louis area last Sunday to head to Peoria, IL. I meet up with Richard (he’s the guy who invented the bikes) and Mike (the new tech I would be with). Richard decided since we were taking his new bikes on their “maiden voyage” (his words) he wanted to be there just in case…so we set off on the short trip, only three hours. If you ever have the need to feel less than smart spend some time with Richard, if you ever want to feel really really less than smart spend three hours in car vehicle with Richard. Anywho, we began our week and it went off without a hitch…by Wednesday I started to think the week was going way to easy. That was my first mistake…at about 1pm a call came in and the long and short of it was, as floor supervisor was sick on the east cost and they needed to get some one out there…here’s where the pin ball machine comes in. So it made the most sense to send me since I was already booked on a flight for the east coast. Only catch I had to drive to St Louis first. So after camp finished I went back to the hotel got my things together and wrote up some notes for the person coming to fill my shoes. I jumped into a rental car drove to St Louis and was able to sleep in my own bed J Only bad part I had to get up at 4am to catch my flight. So I was on the first flight out I could get on and landed at about 12 where I was promptly delivered to the Dulles Expo center to fill in. Nothing like getting off a plane and running. It was truly a case of mind over matter…I spent the night in VA and finished out the camp on Friday. Kristen is doing just fine for those who are wondering seems as though she had a kidney stone L All is well and she finished out camp on Friday with the rest of us. I then left VA with the passenger van and trailer in tow. I spent Friday night at my folks and then left about mid day to begin my journey to New England. My dad was kind enough to pick up Mike from the airport…you know the tech I left in Peoria. We thought it might raise a few eye brows if a single person driving a large passenger van and towing a trailer pulled into the airport :-0 So we met up on 95 at about 1pm or so. Mike and I began the journey, me driving of course…I drove over the GW bridge, you can see the pictures and had a blast…I think I upset a few people a long the way…but hey I used my turn signal!!! In the mean time I’m now in CT where I will spend my week then I fly back to the mid-west to meet up with Heidi for my last week of camp L So there you have it. A bruise on Heidi’s leg from falling off the truck…a picture of LTTW’s president riding a bike with his daughter in VA, and a few pics of Mike and NY’s beautiful skyline J
Take care everyone and see you soon!
Sharon
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*)From: Sharon Colantonio
Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2007 8:58 PM
Subject: A little behind :)
Well, as you can tell I’m a little behind. Since my last update Heidi and I were in Wisconsin and had a great week there. We had a special treat with a race car showing up at Culvers and I was able to get some great pictures of it. Moving on from WI it was time for a week of R&R. Heidi head to Las Vegas to visit family and I headed to DC to visit mine. We both had a great week off. Last week was a bit more challenging but we survived! We had a camp in the suburbs of Chicago and we stayed with Heidi’s family…more importantly her mom made dinner for us almost every night so it meant one more week of NOT eating out. Believe it or not it can get oldJ. This week we are in Fort Wayne, IN. We arrived here last night and we are anticipating a great week. Fortunately nothing to outrageous or crazy has happened and we continue to be amazed with the kids and families we come in contact with each week. Enjoy the photos I’ve attached.
Sharon
"...And you never can tell how close you are; It may be near when it seems so far. So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--It's when things seem worst that you must not quit."
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*) From: Sharon Colantonio
To: Amy Heidotten
Subject: FW: Waunakee camp coverage
So I suppose this would be my first real TV interview. Heidi the girl I travel with made me do it. Anyway, I thought the news crew did a really great job considering it was all last minute and we weren't expecting them today!
Take care and enjoy!
Heidi and I are now in Chicago for the weekend and we will have this next week off. I will be in DC for the week.
God Bless,
Sharon
http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/8253082.html
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This past week was a bit crazy!!! We had 40 campers and one runner! What do I mean by a runner…this kid would ride the bike for 30 seconds and just as you thought he was going to get down to business he jumped off the bike took of his helmet and made a break for the nearest door…needless to say he kept us on our toes J Despite that he managed to learn to ride a bike!!! Trust me I can’t begin to tell you how that happen!!! 29 of our 39 participants this past week made it up on bikes and some made it outside. Heidi and I are just outside of Chicago staying at her parent’s house for the weekend and we will take off for Madison, WI in the morning!!! Once I get to the hotel I will shoot you all some pics from this past week.
In the mean time happy travels!!!
Sharon
"...And you never can tell how close you are; It may be near when it seems so far. So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--It's when things seem worst that you must not quit."
*) pics from "Bay Village, OH.pps"
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 8:04 AM
Subject: Update LTTW
I know I've not even left and here is your first update. I've already worked our first camp in Edwardsville, IL. It was conducted in conjunction with a under grad/graduate course and we only conducted two session. It was a great teaser to get ready for the summer. Below is also and update on my trip itinerary. You will see that a few empty weeks have already been booked. AT this point we are up to 35 camps in all. They are planing that I will conduct 9 of those!!! Crazy, I'm so excited and can't wait!!! Take care and we shall be in touch soon. Once I hit the road I hope to be able to send a long pictures. That should be a little more entertaining. In the meantime this will have to do :)
Love in Christ,
Sharon
Here is the article that ran in the Post Dispatch, the local St Louis News Paper for those of you who didn't see it:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoisnews/story/CC7DAC03E7EEC7EE862572E5000C5774?OpenDocument
6/11 Bay Village, OH
6/18 Rochester Hills, MI
6/25 Wanuakee, WI
7/2 OFF
7/9 Villa Park, IL
7/16 Fort Wayne, IN (not confirmed)
7/23 Glenview, IL (not confirmed)
7/30 Peoria, IL
8/6 West Hartford, CT
8/13 Fon du Lac, WI
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*) From: Sharon Colantonio
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2007 7:49 AM
Subject: Sharon C
Okie dokie!
First let me say if you get this and don't want to be a part of this e-mail let me know and I will remove you from the list of senders...OK
So where will Sharon be this summer....
WK 1: June 11 - I head to Bayville, OH - This is the week after we finish school for the year.
WK 2: June 18 - Rochester Hills, MI (Near Detroit)
WK 3: June 25 - Waunakee, WI (North of Madison)
WK 4: July 2 - We drive to Chicago where I will fly to MD for the week, this is vacation.
WK 5: July 9 - Ville Park, IL (outside of Chicago)
WK 6: July 16 - Fort Wayne, IN
WK 7: July 23 - I drive to Excelscor, MN but I do not run the camp.
WK 8: July 30 - No camp YET!
WK 9: August 6 - West Hartford, CT
WK 10: August 13 - No Camp Yet!
So as you can see I will be doing a little bit of traveling. I can't wait!!!! As you can see I will be in Maryland the week of July 4th this is my vacation! There are three other weeks that remain a surprise. One of the camps had to cancel do to the floods in NJ. So I currently have three weeks outside of vacation that I'm not assigned to yet. The exciting part about this, I may get to go out west for a week or so as well!!!
I just wanted to keep you all posted.
Take care and be sure to wave if you see us drive by!
In Christ,
Sharon
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*) From: Sharon Colantonio
Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 5:44 PM
Subject: Awesome news!
I'm not sure what you will be doing this summer but I know what I will be doing. I just received the e-mail below with the awesome news...some of you have been aware this has been in the works for sometime now others of you are just now finding out. I had the opportunity this past summer to work with LTW for two weeks and it was an awesome time. If you don’t know what this is about check out the website:
http://www.losethetrainingwheels.org/
I hoped I might get the east cost fleet but that didn't work out. So what does this mean...simple put, I will be on the road for 10 weeks this summer traveling the Midwest.
So Becky White I will be on a summer break from DAT (sorry, Patti N., Dennis, Ann and Christy) I will start back in September.
Tim I will also be on a summer break from the band (June, July and August). I will start back in September.
Mark K please keep this under wrap since nothing has been finalized!
I wish I could adequately put in to words how excited I am to have this opportunity. Please continue to keep Heidi (my mechanic) and me in your prayers. Emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually this is hard work. I have to really start working out again…back to training days. This is not work for the faint of heart so anyone interested in getting in to shape…I have to start running againL ? We will also be traveling (driving every one of them) many, many miles leaving camps on Fridays to head for our next destination. I guess now would be a good time to update Rosie (my GPS) J
My family back east…you need to decide when you want me to come home. The week off in August is for family time. So think about it talk it over and let me know. Personally, I would like to be home for Jacks birthday since I missed it last year. BUT I know this is an insane amount of time to try and plan ahead unfortunately it has to be written into the contract So even just an idea would be helpful.L
I’m signing off for now. If you would like to be part of a mailing list of my travels and what is going on from town to town let me know and I will create only an e-mail list to be sent to those folks. I Hope everyone is doing well and staying warm…it is bitter cold here in St Louis, it reminds me of Frostburg!
With Love in Christ,
Sharon
Sharon,
Hey, the board of "Lose the Training Wheels" met this past weekend. You
Have officially been approved as the Floor Supervisor for the Midwest Fleet
(with Heidi Curtis as your technician). I hope you're still interested in the job!
Please send me your dates of availability for summer, 2007. I remember that
you had a week in August that you would not be able to work (we have several part-time Floor Supervisors to fill in when you are not available).
Thanks,
Tammy
p.s. You will be receiving a contract to review. I'll check with our board
president (John Lord) to see when that will take place.
*) Here's a PIC of Sharon with her Bike Camp when they were in FairFax Va. from the FairFax Count PARKTAKES magazine winter 2008 issue:
http://picasaweb.google.com/msw2005/Sharons_PARKTAKES_FairFax_Magzine_PICs_Winter2008_issue
