Mars-Hill College's "Green Team"
Essay by MHC head cycling coach, Hugh Moran
Last year, in August 2008, I was hired to build the cycling program at Mars Hill College in Western North Carolina. We were then a “green” team, in the sense that we were a young and inexperienced organization. Our cycling team had a few hundred dollars of seed money in its budget, maybe enough to get to the first race or two. A month later the bottom fell out of the economy. Calling and asking for team sponsorship during a very bad recession was an exercise in futility. But with the support of a few dedicated alumni and individual supporters, donations from a couple of local cycling organizations, and a cycling film fundraiser, we were able to get our team to nearly all of the races, and eventually to nationals. We cut costs where we could: staying at host housing, cooking our own meals, putting on a fundraiser, having a silent auction, even asking supporters to please just buy us a tank of gas.
A year later, the economy is not much better and many potential sponsors’ marketing budgets have been curtailed if not frozen. While the team made a name for itself with a number of strong results last year, our budget has not grown enough to fully support our growing team, and sponsorship prospects again seem daunting. The number of scholarship athletes on the team has now tripled in size, meaning that we need a much larger budget to cover the basic support we offer our athletes: entry fees, travel and lodging expenses, food per diem, etc. Plus, we’ve expanded into the mountain and cyclocross disciplines, further stretching our resources. The team’s growth is a great thing but presents an even larger financial predicament for our team than last year. What to do?
Several days of mulling it over produced a number of critical questions: How can we create a team of sponsors who are more than just logos on a jersey? How can we create win/win/win relationships between the college, sponsors, and the team and make cash sponsorship attractive? What types of businesses actually have budgets for marketing and promotion? Eventually, the idea to build a “green” team developed, a team that would be supported by local companies who provide access to sustainable and ecological goods and services.
This idea emanated from discussions with current and former faculty and staff and was propelled by the enthusiasm of our riders. Mars Hill College has been on the sustainable path for a few years (www.mhc.edu/green) and last year completed the Ferguson Math and Science building that is heated and cooled via geothermal technology. Currently, the college is having a large array of solar thermal panels installed atop the Pitmann Dining Hall and the Gibson and Brown Residence Halls, and a new LEED Platinum multi-purpose building is in design. Other initiatives include campus-wide recycling, weatherization, recycling of waste oil from the cafeteria for biodiesel, and updating old fixtures with energy efficient alternatives. The administration has taken on these initiatives because they make fiscal sense, keep the campus’ historic buildings functioning efficiently, make the college more attractive to potential students, and quite simply are the right thing to do for this thing we call our planet.
So my thinking went something like this: if the bicycle is the ultimate ecological vehicle, then couldn’t the cycling team be the perfect promotional vehicle for the college’s “green” initiatives and its partners in the effort? I discussed this idea with the company installing the solar panels, FLS Energy (www.flsenergy.com), and the operations manager of their residential component, First Light Solar (www.firstlightsolar.com), came up with a creative idea to support the team. I partnered with an organic lifestyles magazine, The Organic Shopper (www.organicshoppermag.com), and they gave us free advertising space to help attract other like-minded partners. I continued to approach and negotiate with other eco-friendly organizations and received an overwhelmingly positive response. Now our “green” team includes Home Energy Parters (www.homeenergypartners.com), French Broad Food Coop (www.frenchbroadfood.coop), Blue Ridge Biofuels (www.blueridgebiofuels.com), The Organic Mechanic (www.organic-mechanic.com), Raw Revolution Energy Bars (www.rawrev.com), Organic Athlete (www.organicathlete.org), and Hearn’s Cycling and Fitness (www.hearns-cycling.com). Other partnerships are still in negotiation. In addition, the cycling team will partner with Appalachian Offsets (www.wncgbc/offset) to offset the carbon and greenhouse gases we generate by driving to events.
Now--and despite the ongoing recession--the Mars Hill College Cycling Team will be able to give its riders the support they need to be successful in 2010. We found a way to create an enhanced combined effect for our partners, a synergy that is much more than just a logo on a jersey. Partnering up allows us all to win: the college receives publicity for its sustainable practices while continuing to build relationships with local “green” vendors and organizations; our sponsors receive recognition in a very competitive “green” marketplace via our eco-marketing campaign and gain access to potential business opportunities; the team gets funded for the year by sponsors we are proud to represent and passionate to support; and together we’re all working to make our community more connected, energy efficient, healthy, and a better place to live, work, and ride bikes.
Hugh Moran
Mars Hill College Cycling
828.275.3950 cell
hamoran@gmail.com
www.marshillcycling.com
www.mhc.edu
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