CONGRATULATIONS TO REBECKA "BECKY" ABBOTT

RECIPIENT OF THE $1,000 BODY ELECTRIC

ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIP

On February 5, 2007 Body Electric awarded its tenth annual $1,000 athletic scholarship to Rebecka “Becky” Abbott, a senior at San Marcos High School, at the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table’s Girls and Women in Sports Luncheon. 

Becky has played on the San Marcos Girls’ Softball team throughout high school, and has served as a Co-Captain of the Varsity team.  Becky became interested in playing softball when, as a little girl, she saw boys playing softball and turned to her mother to say, “Mommy, I can do that, too!” She has earned numerous honors for academics and sports, including Most Valuable Player and The Captains Award.  Becky plans to attend Santa Barbara City College next year, with longer range goals of transferring to UC Santa Barbara and becoming a teacher, sports coach, or counselor.

 Body Electric’s $1,000 scholarship is administered by the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara and awarded annually by Body Electric in honor of National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL FITFEST!

On February 24, 2007 Body Electric hosted its annual Women's FitFest.  FitFest is a community-wide health, sports and fitness fair.  FitFest brings together women and girls interested in health and fitness with organizations that provide education, products and services that promote lifelong healthy habits.  This year's event featured chair massage, a prize wheel, gymnastics demonstrations, fitness ball demonstrations, healthy foods, and many other fun and educational exhibits and demonstrations! 

Interactive exhibitors included the Breast Cancer Resource Center of Santa Barbara, the City of Santa Barbara Parks and Recreation Department, Domestic Violence Solutions, Fitness Transform, Girl Scouts of Tres Condados, Isla Vista Food Co-op, Killer B Fitness, Mary Kay - Michelle Bischoff, Massage Envy, New Sun Nutrition - FRS, One Legacy, Partners for Fit Youth, Pharmanex/NuSkin, Planned Parenthood, Reshaping Fitness, Sansum Diabetes Research Institute, Santa Barbara Diabetes Initiative, Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics, Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center, Santa Barbara Swim Club, Santa Barbara Wellness for Life - Dr. Kara Gochnour, Team in Training, United States Youth Volleyball League, Angela Wurtzel MA MFT, and other health, sports and fitness organizations.

Our generous sponsors and donors included CIO Solutions, the City of Santa Barbara Parks and Recreation Department, Curves, Edhat, FedEx Kinkos, Fitness Transform, Isla Vista Food Co-op, Killer B Fitness, Mark French Basketball Camp, Massage Envy, Reshaping Fitness, Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center, Santa Barbara Wellness for Life, and UCSB Lady Gauchos.

Stay tuned for pictures of the event.

Many thanks to the wonderful organizations and individuals that supported this event!

AN AMAZING RACE - A LOCAL WOMAN BECOMES THE FIRST WOMAN

TO SOLO THE BAJA 1000 ON A MOTORCYCLE

On November 17, 2006, Body Electric’s 2005 Celebrity Waiter, Anna Cody, became the first woman to solo the Baja 1000 on a motorcycle.  Anna has been riding motorcycles since she was two years old and was the first woman to earn corporate sponsorship in her sport. In 1990, she and former racing teammate, Lillie Sweetland, who died of cancer in 2001, were the first women’s team to complete the Baja, another significant first for women in sports.  Below, in her own words, are excerpts from Anna’s blog about her experiences this past November.  Anna raced in Lillie’s memory and helped to raise funds for the American Cancer Society. To see Anna’s video of her Baja 1000 race, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu8W8sqo55g. 

Hello all,

As some of you may or may not know I crossed the finish line of the Baja 1000 on 11/17/06 somewhere around 4:20pm. It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, I rode for 33 hours and 35 minutes, the longest break I took was 1 hour, and that was around 2:30am after my bike nearly got ran over by a trophy truck, I had to sit down and get myself together. I was just outside of Loreto when a silt pocket swallowed my XR650 I came up out of it only to dump it over on its side in a two track road with the rear wheel hanging in the tracks, the lights flickered off and I tried to pull the bike out of the way when I suddenly heard the roar of the trophy truck, suddenly I could see everything I worked so hard for go down the drain, in an instant I threw myself in front of the bike waiving my arms up and down, the co driver saw me and motioned to the driver, who than pitched the truck sideways into the bushes, the truck went sideways and missed my bike by about one inch, I had such an adrenaline rush I grabbed that bike and pulled it 25 feet off the course and picked it up, I peed my pants and than started the bike and went on to pit 14 for a well deserved break.

I had to rest there because the next section was the hardest part, the
Hurricane that happened in OCT destroyed about 300 miles of the course, leaving a rock river bed to ride on with 50+ river crossings with some of them as high as the seat, but I plugged away, never once did the thought of quitting enter my mind, anytime I got tired I thought of my former team-mate Lillie fighting her battle with Cancer and realized that this is only 2 days of my life and I can do it.

The last Honda pit was great, they knew I was coming and when I got there they had a sign that said welcome Anna it was really exciting because I knew I was almost there, onward I went into La Paz, there were thousands of people cheering me on, I was way pumped I had tears that filled my goggles, I looked up into the sky and blew Lillie a kiss and than the checkered flag with Sal Fish greeting me, he said where can you race where you see the sun rise, the sun set, the sun rise and set again. He asked me if I was ok, I just said I am a bit over whelmed he said we all are, than the next thing I know Mouse McCoy came up to me and gave me a hug, he said I know where you have been and we talked for a while, than off to interviews with OLN and speed vision. I threw my goggles into the fans; a girl got them and came over to have me sign them.

We went to the hotel and I had huge blisters on my hand they were raised up
full of fluid, off to dinner I ordered and fell asleep on the table.

All and all this was a life changing experience, I dug deep into my soul and discovered so much about myself and was finally able to come to peace and let Lillie go.

I rode this race Solo but it was not a solo effort so many people got behind me, my sponsors Honda Pro Oil and chemicals FMF, GPR, BRP, IMS, Maxiss, Slime, AXO, MTA, Lippert Racing, Team Caveman, Thousand Oaks Honda, my chase crew, all of the great Honda Pits and my mechanic Richard Jackson, the list goes on
and on, I am just so proud I did not let any of you down.

Solo next year? We will see. Offers are starting to come in.

God Bless all

Anna Cody

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