Pedal to the Metal for Awareness

Brown Reynolds Watford (BRW) participated in American Heart Association’s (AHA) CycleNation event to inspire better brain and heart health.

On May 16, The American Heart Association held it’s CycleNation, a nationwide movement that promotes heart health, while generating donations to end heart disease and strokes. For the first time, BRW was given the chance to sponsor a bike for $2500 as well as to hop on to raise some funds and earn some sweat equity. Several Dallas-based firms such as Cisco, Orix, JQ Engineering, and Schneider Electric joined in on the fundraiser, all with the common goal of putting an end to heart disease.

Each group was to gather up a team between four to eight volunteers to represent their firms as they pedaled for two hours on stationary bikes in Klyde Warren Park. As tough as it can be to pedal for two hours, volunteers received words of encouragement from instructors while listening to adrenaline pumping music provided by North Texas Radio.

BRW’s team consisted of Alison Foltz, Blanca Rodriguez, Cory Durrant, Kristi Klimacek, Misha Wynn, Sionnis Pierre, Sonya Shah, Stefani Johnson led by team captain, Traci Brundage. BRW’s team considered the 85-degree Fahrenheit temperature and planned out their rotations by switching a team member every 15 minutes. In doing so, BRW’s team remained level headed to cheer each other on, and Focused on What Matters ®; raising awareness for heart health.

While it was BRW’s first year to be involved with CycleNation, the architecture firm was able to raise an additional $485 during the event, increasing BRW’s total contribution to $2,985.