Pointless prize: Quaxapalooza

POINTLESS PRIZE: QUAXAPALOOZA

As the wife of a local small business owner (Maryland Meadworks), I am sponsoring a pointless prize to encourage supporting your local small businesses on your bikes (aka Quaxing).

Leaderboard: https://freezingsaddles.org/pointless/hashtag/BAFS2021SmallBiz

How to play:

1. Go for a Quax — support a local small business by buying something (any amount) and picking it up via bike. One point per business, and yes, you can do more than one per day, but need to log separate Strava rides to each stop. You only get one point per distinct local biz (so yes, you can come 100 times to Maryland Meadworks, as well you should, but you will only get 1 point for the first visit…)

2. Take a picture of you (wearing a mask), your bike, and your purchase (or if it was a service, perhaps the signage or some such that represents that service) outside as many different small businesses as possible.

3. For your ride to count, use #BAFS2021SmallBiz in your Strava ride title AND include the name of the place you visited, e.g., #BAFS2021SmallBiz Maryland Meadworks (shameless plug, right?) And upload the related photo to the same ride. Mileage does not count unless theres a tie. The points are solely based on the number of unique establishments you support, one per recorded ride (but no limit to how many rides / points you can rack up in a single day).

4. Please play safely: For example, picking up your takeout / growlers (of mead, or even things… that are not mead) curbside (on your bike!)! Again, please take your selfie OUTSIDE the establishment, masked, to set a good example for how COVID-safe cyclists are!

5. What constitutes a local small business? I’ll give broad leeway on this. Frankly most every business (esp restaurants) is in such pain right now, I’m likely to give a lot of slack. I just want you to go out for a ride, stimulate the economy and help keep your neighbors employed. And yes, I’ll allow you to more than one of a local chain if you differentiate the tags — i.e. “#BAFS2021SmallBiz Vigilante Hyattsville” AND “#BAFS2021SmallBiz Vigilante College Park” would each count for a point.

6. Prizes? I’ll buy the top 3 winners a giftcard ($75, $50, $25) to their favorite local business. (Even if it’s not Maryland Meadworks!)