Win back your entry fee - 2012 Ironman 70.3 Vineman

Since 2009 Vineman has run a contest, giving the participants of the Ironman 70.3 Vineman a chance to win back their entry fee. Our winner in 2009 was Laurie Kehl who, as we suggested, asked her friends to help her in collecting wrappers. One of the people that joined in to help Laurie was pro triathlete, Becky Lavelle. Laurie was able to collect just over 1300 wrappers! Well done Laurie!! Though we had only a handful of people participate we managed to collect approximately 1750 energy bar and granola bar wrappers through the contest!
In 2010 the popularity of the contest grew and our winner, Gail Hubbard collected over 5000 wrappers...again with the help of friends! We had 2 other athletes that each collected 3000 wrappers. In total you collected 13,560 wrappers in 2010 alone!
In 2011 the large number of wrappers collected by our participants took over our office space (well, my office space anyway). Our winner, Jessica Janness managed to collect 9741 wrappers. Jessica is a school teacher and recruited the help of her students. Good thinking Jessica!!

So what happens to all these wrappers? They get sent to Terracycle for something called a wrapper brigade. What is a wrapper brigade you ask? Go to www.terracycle.net for more information and then read on for how you can win back your entry fee in 2012. 

Yes we are offering athletes the chance, once again, to win back their entry fee for Vineman Ironman 70.3. At the same time you would be helping out the environment. Simply save energy bar and granola bar wrappers from now until race day and bring them with you to packet pickup the day before the race or on race day to the finish line.
In May of 2008 Vineman signed up for the TerraCycle wrapper brigade and to date has recycled over 20,000 wrappers. After being collected the wrappers get sent to TerraCycle who in turn makes the wrappers into tote bags and purses. For each wrapper collected, 2 cents goes to an organization of choice. Vineman has chosen the Sonoma County Bike Coalition.

Think you can’t collect that many wrappers? Well, if you are a member of a tri club/team or cycling club/team just ask all of the members to save their wrappers. You can make it a group effort and if you are the one that wins your entry fee back you can put it toward a party for everyone. If you belong to a gym or own a bike or tri shop, put posters up asking people to save their wrappers. Or if you put on an event of your own, collect wrappers there!

The person that collects and turns in the most wrappers will win back their entry fee for the 2012 Vineman Ironman 70.3. Here are the details:

• The minimum number of wrappers needed to be eligible is 750. (but we'll take any wrappers you might have!)
• You should bring wrappers with you to packet pick up the day before the race and turn them in to Amy, the registration coordinator. If you prefer to mail your wrappers, this is acceptable as well but all wrappers need to be mailed together at one time. (mailing address is: Vineman PO Box 6007 Santa Rosa, CA 95406)
• Wrappers should be submitted in a sealed envelope or bag with your name and contact information. To save us some time, please put your wrappers in bunches of 100. This helps the counting go much quicker!
• All wrappers will be counted during the 2-3 weeks after the race and the winner announced on the website, after which time a refund check for the entry fee will be mailed out.
• For the person that turns in the second highest number of wrappers, they will get a piece of Vineman apparel of their choice.
• Please note that ONLY energy bar, granola bar and cereal bar wrappers with the silver inner lining will be accepted....no gel wrappers, candy bar wrappers, fruit roll up wrappers, etc., please!!!

If you have any questions, please contact Amy directly at amy@vineman.com.