The Illini 4000 has undergone many changes in the past year, most visibly our website. Unlike 2008, we made our 2009 contributions to the American Cancer Society (ACS) and Camp Kesem with very little fanfare or announcement to our faithful donors. With this in mind, it is appropriate we look back at the past year before we continue forward with this one.In 2009, we contributed $52,500 to the ACS and $7,500 to Camp Kesem. One-third of the amount contributed to the ACS was designated for Patient Services and tripled through a matching grant by the Coleman and Duchossois Foundations. We committed to this matching program because we believed that it would be the most effective use of our fundraised dollars in order to support crucial programs that help cancer patients and survivors in Illinois.You may notice on our homepage the photo of our President, Conor Canaday, presenting a check to Steven Derks, the Illinois CEO of the ACS. This check, in the amount of $20,000 represents our commitment to contribute once again to a matching program benefiting Patient Services. Fifty percent of this amount will be matched by the Coleman Foundation. Our decision to participate is motivated for the same reasons as in 2009. This opportunity, however, had a time limit, as it expires in June. For this reason, we made this contribution before the 2010 ride rather than after it - and this is only a part of the total contributions we will make this year.Our total fundraisng now exceeds $96,000, far surpassing our previous fundraising marks. This is outstanding because it means we will contribute more to ACS and Camp Kesem than we ever have before. And we will continue to raise more over the summer.We thank you for your support and for continuing the fight against cancer. We look forward to sharing with you our coming summer, stories from the ride, and overall successes in 2010.