The Bull Moon Ride

When you stage an annual event, the challenge is year-over-year growth, and we're very pleased with the results of Saturday night's Bull Moon bike ride for Habitat of Durham. 653 cyclists meandered through dusky downtown Durham. That's about 80 more riders than last year. They raised over $30K. We're headed in the right direction!

Cycling begins at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

Bull Riders (and Bulls' managers) Mary Beth Warfford and Matt DeMargel.

They helped organize and promote the Bull Moon Ride
alongside Molly Boyce who was too busy to pose for a photo.

This is not a competitive cycling event. It has a greater purpose! Registration and sponsorship fees support Habitat for Humanity's home building, home ownership and neighborhood improvement efforts. I lifted this from their website:

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF DURHAM IS A NON-PROFIT, CHRISTIAN HOUSING MINISTRY THAT BUILDS, REPAIRS AND SELLS DECENT, AFFORDABLE AND SUSTAINABLE HOMES IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PEOPLE IN NEED AND COMMUNITIES THAT CARE. WE ARE A NON-PROFIT HOUSING ORGANIZATION THAT BELIEVES DECENT HOUSING IS A MATTER OF CONSCIENCE AND ACTION.

Founded in 1985, we have broken ground on more than 250 homes for working families in Durham whose housing is unsound, unsafe or overcrowded. We are the banker and the builder. We build, repair and sell new homes at no interest. The no-interest loans, as well as donations of time and money, allow us to offer an affordable mortgage payment to families who don't qualify for traditional mortgages.

In addition to new homes, we repair homes and beautifying neighborhoods through A Brush With Kindness. Through these efforts we transform and stabilize neighborhoods.

Deck the Halls...with LED lights!

Jingle Bull Bash

Triangle Christmas Tree Challenge

Most companies would be content to erect a Christmas tree in their lobby for the holidays, but not Capitol Broadcasting. Befitting out business, we’re partial to towers.

We decorate and light the communications tower at our Raleigh HQ on Western Blvd, and we’ve continued that tradition with the iconic Lucky Strike water tower on Durham’s American Tobacco campus.

We flipped the switch Friday evening (Dec. 3rd) amid caroling and a community celebration of the holiday season.

If you zip by American Tobacco on the freeway or Blackwell Street, you don’t realize that the complex has an expansive interior courtyard. Come for a visit. Photos don’t do the lighting display justice. It’s worthy of Disney, maybe better!

And there’s an added attraction this season: on Blackwell, next to the Durham Performing Arts Center, fifty Christmas trees line the walkway. Each tree has been cleverly decorated by a local non-profit, and there’s a contest underway that will put some cash in a charity’s treasury, the Triangle Christmas Tree Challenge.


The Bulls are sponsoring Habitat for Humanity’s Youth United tree. It’s decorated with yellow hard hats. We would appreciate your vote in support of Durham Habitat!!!

Click here for video, slideshows and more info on

Durham's Jingle Bulls Bash and the Triangle Christmas Tree Challenge

The results are in...

No, this isn't about Tuesday's election. Rather, we have the stats for Habitat's Halloween Bike Ride in Durham:

796 riders!

Over $66,000 Raised!

The ever versatile Durham Bulls Athletic Park was both start and finish line for the ride. A great event for a great cause! Habitat for Humanity is such an effective, productive organization.

Our staff helped out with this home last winter. Check out the before and after:



This is in the Lyon Park neighborhood off Morehead Ave. near downtown Durham. It seems like Habitat is building a house on every block. This is how neighborhoods are transformed...for the better!

Habitat of Durham can assist you with Holiday gift-giving. CLICK HERE for the scoop.

Halloween: Nightmare on Blackwell Street

You would think that the Bulls invented Halloween:

We hosted the Durham Habitat Halloween Bike Ride.

Wool E. Bull went trick-or-treatin' with a family of Bulls fans.

We conducted a costume contest on Facebook.

And we sold so many jerseys for Halloween costumes in our store that we were able to donate $1300 to the Susan G. Komen foundation for breast cancer awareness month.

Here are several photos from the Saturday cycling event. I'm waiting to hear how much money was raised. Thanks to Cree - outstanding Durham corporate citizen - for sponsoring the ride.

Cycling under a BULL MOON

The Bulls sponsor, host and promote the Bull Moon bicycle ride. The 2010 circuit (last Saturday evening) was a big success raising over $30K for Durham Habitat. That will jump-start construction of a new Habitat home, and it will put another Bull City family on the path to home ownership.

I step aside and give the credit to 567 riders and the title sponsor, Cree. How appropriate that Durham’s LED manufacturer sponsored a nighttime event in need of lighting. Cree even gave-away Coleman headlamps that are made, of course, with LEDs!

I really like this event. You don't have to be cycle-obsessed with Tour de France aspirations. It’s more of a family affair…you can take it easy...on a summertime Saturday night. There were two routes – ten and eighteen mile treks – both through downtown. The longer course incorporated the American Tobacco Trail.

The next Habitat cycling event is the Halloween Bike Ride on Saturday, October 30th. Read about last year's ride - click here. Put it on your calendar. Don't be scared...

It's Cool to Care!

We used our July 4th game as a platform to recognize "good things happening in Durham" as Mayor Bell is fond of saying...and two groups serving the Bull City.

With a captive audience of 12,000 - awaiting the fireworks show Sunday night - Durham's annual It's Cool to Care awards were announced.

On the left are young folks from Durham Habitat's YOUTH UNITED. On the right, representatives of TEAMING FOR TECHNOLOGY, an arm of United Way of the Greater Triangle. They're receiving their service trophies from Bulls' GM Mike Birling and Wool E. Bull.

Please, click on the links above and watch the videos. Learn more about these great organizations.

HATS OFF to Al Reynolds and Joe Burgess with T4T...and to Deidre Callahan and her crew of YOUTH UNITED at Habitat. Yes, it's cool to care!

The Weekly Round-up

We're off to the Baseball Winter Meetings in Indy. Ginormous trade show...league business meetings...seminars. The Tampa Bay Rays host a reception for all of their Minor League affiliates, and the MLB honchos gather for trades and transactions. The latter adds considerable drama to the annual off-season convention. We don't participate in those decisions. That's the province of the Major League club, but we do get to rub elbows with the big dawgs.

Baseball America, our industry bible, announces a slew of recognitions and awards in its Winter Meetings issue. The Bulls are basking in BA glow...

Charlie Montoyo is the magazine's Minor League Manager of the Year and the Rays are ranked as the number two farm system by editor John Manuel.

1 - Rangers

2 - Rays

3 - Giants

4 - Phillies

5 - Indians

~ ~ ~ ~

On the home front, the Bulls' staff spent Friday afternoon working on a Habitat home near the ballpark. Our team has helped Durham Habitat raise over $75K this year...and our front office volunteers helped to raise a house. I won't make any snide comments about their construction skills because their hearts are in the right place. Plus, they were closely supervised, and no one was taken to the ER.

Our Habitat Home (about 50% of it)

Sales staff at work: Chris Overby, Mike Miller, Ryan Tuttle, Ashley Giovenco

Bulls PR chief Matt DeMargel and GM Mike Birling

Head Groundskeeper Scott Strickland

Molly Boyce of sponsorship services

~ ~ ~ ~

...and finally:

I attended Phantom of the Opera Thursday night at the Durham Performing Arts Center. I've seen Phantom several times, and this national tour is undoubtedly the best. The production is opulent! DPAC GM Bob Klaus tells me it took 22 tractor trailers to deliver the sets, costumes and associated gear. The lead performances and music soar! The special effects are impressive. The theater acoustics are superb. Phantom runs through December 20th. You gotta see it!

The Durham Bulls are a proud sponsor of the DPAC's Broadway Series.

A Sea of Soggy Cyclists

Halloween was gray and wet, but Durham's sixth annual Halloween Bike Ride for Habitat was a ray of sunshine. (These pix are from Blackwell Street in front of the Durham Bulls Athletic Park where the event began.) The Bulls have sponsored the July Bull Moon evening ride and the Halloween trek raising over $75,000 for Habitat this year!!!

I want to thank former Bulls' GM Peter Anlyan and our Promotions Director Matt DeMargel. They have championed (and helped to organize and promote) these cycling events. Peter and Matt have combined their personal passion for cycling with support for Habitat for Humanity in Durham. We've helped to raise enough for a new home, and I believe the October ride is now the Triangle's biggest cycling event.





From the Durham Habitat news release...

The goal of the 2009 Habitat Bike Rides, including the July Bull Moon Ride and the October Halloween Bike Ride, is to raise the $50,000 Habitat home sponsorship for the Billious family home. Lakenya Billious is the 33 year-old mother of a 13 year-old daughter. Lakenya's mother and nephew also live with her. Lakenya works as a child nutrition assistant with the Durham Public Schools and as a parking attendant with the City of Durham. The Billious family is thrilled to have their home sponsored by the rides and to make their dream of homeownership come true.

With the Triangle area having the highest per-capita income in North Carolina, it is rated one of the most expensive rental markets in the state. As a result, Durham has the region’s lowest home ownership rate. Habitat believes decent housing is a matter of conscience and action. By raising money with the help of volunteers and donations, Habitat allows families to build equity and break the cycle of poverty for future generations. By riding, bicyclists help make the dream of home ownership a reality for a family in Durham!