It’s been a few weeks since I’ve last updated the blog so I figured it was time I do something with this. As you can all imagine, things have been fairly hectic with the new baby in the house, so riding time has been fairly minimal, and hence no racing and no race reports. So, what else have I been busy doing besides changing diapers? Helping out with a local non-profit that two of my teammates, Jim Flesher and Tim House started; Elves and More, NEO. I remember reading in my Bicycling magazine a few years ago about this guy in Texas who was giving away 20,000 bikes a year to underprivileged kids in the Houston area and I thought what a cool idea and how nice it would be to be a part of something like that. Well, I’m happy to say that I’m now apart of something like that, only not nearly on that scale, yet. This year our hopes are that we can give away 100 bikes to kids in the Akron area. The concept is that we give every kid a Christmas gift in a selected area, so that every kid gets something and no one is left out. There are no prequalification that kids have to do, no forms to fill out, they just need to be a kid and they just need to be home when we come to their area. This is a crazy concept and something that is never done, so it will be interesting to see how it works out. The other idea behind this that makes it somewhat unusual is that we will simply arrive in an area, with no notice to the residents. This helps it be a complete surprise, and it will also guarantee that kids from outside the neighborhood don’t show up looking for bikes. I know this seems cruel but lets face it, whether we are giving away 10 bikes or 20,000, if everyone knew where and when you were giving away a free bike, then there would be no way you could ever have enough bikes for everyone. There’s always next year and the chance that we’ll visit their neighborhood.
So why am I telling this? Why of course because we are still in need of donations. I’d recommend if you haven’t done so all ready, please visit our website: http://www.elvesandmoreneo.org/
On the website, you will find more information on us and how you can help us reach our goals. Thanks.
brian
