VeloNews | Rock Racing launches fund to help injured bike racers.

Michael Ball, owner of the Rock Racing team, says he and his companies will contribute “hundreds of thousands” of dollars to launch a fund to help elite racers who seriously injured while racing.

“Let’s do the right thing for these guys,” Ball told VeloNews.

Ball urged other teams and bicycle industry members to contribute to the Professional Cycling Catastrophic Injury Fund, which will be managed by an independent board. The team will contribute 10 percent of the sales of Rock Racing merchandise to the fund. The entire proceeds from sales of several new items — to be sold on the team’s Web site and at events — will go to the fund.

Ball said he was inspired to launch the fund by the plight of Mexican racer Fausto Esparza, who was partially paralyzed after a downhill crash at New Mexico’s Tour of the Gila this spring.

“That’s what really made me think about this,” he said. “Here’s a perfect example of a guy who has dedicated his life to the sport and now he’s in a tough spot,” he said.

Esparza, who spent several weeks at the hospital in El Paso, Texas, following the crash, has been moved to a facility in Mexico City, according to a source familiar with his situation. A call to a family member on Sunday was not immediately returned.

Ball said his goal is to raise $20 million over the next two years. The initial donation will come from the team, his Rock & Republic clothing company and himself personally. He said the fund will make donations to elite amateurs and professionals who are injured during a race. The fund’s board of directors will decide on a case-by-case basis who qualifies and how much support should be given.

If he hopes to raise $20,000,000, I certainly hope that he and Rock & Republic will be contributing more than just “hundreds of thousands” … thousands of thousands would be better. And I really hope that this is not another case of Ball talking out of his ass, and that he actually does something this time.

Michael Ball just might not be a total dick … but I’m still going to reserve judgment until everything is in place, and the fund completely established (and independent).

I’ve got a lot of causes that I support … perhaps too many, because I find I’m always getting solicitations in the mail (and email) asking for more and more of my money.

To some extent, it’s hard for me to even remember everything I’ve given money too, until I go back through my finances every spring to file my taxes.

In the past year, I’ve given money to:

• the Salt Lake City Bike Collective (ongoing monthly donations)
• the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (one-off donation)
• the Marin County Bicycle Coalition (one-off donation)
• KUER (ongoing monthly donations)
• KRCL (ongoing monthly donations)
• the San Francisco Zen Center (ongoing quarterly donations)
• the San Francisco AIDS Foundation
• the American Civil Liberties Union (one-off membership, not tax-deductible)
• the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation (one-off donation)
• Barack Obama’s presidential campaign (not tax-deductible)
• Christine’s Fountain (to honor Fastgrrrl’s best training pal, as far as I know, not tax-deductible)
• Susan Nelson’s WIN Fund (Fatty’s wife, who has been battling cancer for years now, not tax-deductible)

There are doubtless other organizations to whom I’ve written a check that I can’t think of right off hand. Altogether, I think I’m going to give away about $2,000 this year. I know it’s going to be well over $1,000.00.

Now lest anyone think I’m bragging, let me get to the point. All I give of myself is my money … I can’t think of the last time I volunteered my time to work with an organization because it was the right thing to do, and it was a cause I believed in.

I find it quite ironic that I’m generous with my money (which I don’t have nearly enough of), yet stingy with my time (which I have more than enough of).

So with that in mind, one of my goals for the summer is to find a suitable organization to which I can donate at least 4 hours of my time, and hopefully I’ll find something inspiring enough to give even more my time and myself to.

For time is truly the most valuable commodity which you can give to any organization.