I apologize for not keeping more up to date on the blog. I think I’ve apologized before in the past but in all honesty, it’s been so long since I’ve written anything I sort of forget where I left off at. As most of you are aware by now, I’m involved in a charity with two of my friends (Tim House & Jim Flesher) called Elves & More, Northeast Ohio. I won’t go too much in depth about who we are or what we do, instead let me refer you to our website for more information. The past few weeks have been chaotic to say the least. There are a lot of stories that Tim, Jim and I could share about everything it took to put this together, but the truly important thing is that on the day it mattered, everything went off without a hitch.
When Saturday morning came, I was like a kid at Christmas, filled with so much anticipation that sleeping was difficult. I’d had sleepless nights earlier in the month, but that was due to some stress of pulling this thing off….again, going back to some of those stories I mentioned earlier. In our first year we were able to gift over 400 kids! That’s amazing considering we only started fundraising in June and our expectation was to reach 100 kids. On Saturday morning, all of the hard work and planning had paid off. I’m not sure it really hit me that we were really doing this until I was sitting in the bus, driving down Cedar Avenue in the middle of a long police escort on the way to our first neighborhood. I had to take a second to compose myself before I could even finish the conversation that I was having. Seeing the big train weaving its way through Akron was a beautiful site, almost as touching as seeing the kids we were visiting smile, laugh and most importantly of all play! The other thing that touched me was seeing everyone run out to the edge of the street as we were leaving waving goodbye and thanks.
Rolling into each of the neighborhoods was a ton of fun. Here was this huge train of vehicles coming and they had no idea what we were up to. All of those kids woke up that morning having no idea how their life was about to change. As one of the organizers of the event, I spent a lot of time near the truck off-loading bikes and getting gifts into the volunteer hands (Just like Tim & Jim did). On one of the few runs that I did get to make, I saw one of the mothers of two kids crying in joy for what we were doing for them. Seeing that sight confirmed that what we were doing was right. Its so cliché but the joy of this time of the year is in the giving and not in the receiving. For so many years I’ve always said that but it probably wasn’t until this year that I really truly grasped this concept. I can honestly say that I could have received absolutely nothing for Christmas and that the experience I had of doing all of this was more than enough for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m way grateful for that iPod shuffle I got, but it wasn’t necessary at all. I am looking forward to driving by these neighborhoods in the near future and seeing the kids out playing on the bikes that I played a small part in getting for them.
So what’s next? Well, first off I need to get back on the bike. Once that happens, I can begin thinking about our 2007 campaign. We’ve said, and it’s been published now that our goal for next year is to provide 1000 bikes. Sitting here today, a year away, I can see that this is a very realistic goal. I hope that each and everyone of you reading this can be a part of next years experience.
brian
When Saturday morning came, I was like a kid at Christmas, filled with so much anticipation that sleeping was difficult. I’d had sleepless nights earlier in the month, but that was due to some stress of pulling this thing off….again, going back to some of those stories I mentioned earlier. In our first year we were able to gift over 400 kids! That’s amazing considering we only started fundraising in June and our expectation was to reach 100 kids. On Saturday morning, all of the hard work and planning had paid off. I’m not sure it really hit me that we were really doing this until I was sitting in the bus, driving down Cedar Avenue in the middle of a long police escort on the way to our first neighborhood. I had to take a second to compose myself before I could even finish the conversation that I was having. Seeing the big train weaving its way through Akron was a beautiful site, almost as touching as seeing the kids we were visiting smile, laugh and most importantly of all play! The other thing that touched me was seeing everyone run out to the edge of the street as we were leaving waving goodbye and thanks.
Rolling into each of the neighborhoods was a ton of fun. Here was this huge train of vehicles coming and they had no idea what we were up to. All of those kids woke up that morning having no idea how their life was about to change. As one of the organizers of the event, I spent a lot of time near the truck off-loading bikes and getting gifts into the volunteer hands (Just like Tim & Jim did). On one of the few runs that I did get to make, I saw one of the mothers of two kids crying in joy for what we were doing for them. Seeing that sight confirmed that what we were doing was right. Its so cliché but the joy of this time of the year is in the giving and not in the receiving. For so many years I’ve always said that but it probably wasn’t until this year that I really truly grasped this concept. I can honestly say that I could have received absolutely nothing for Christmas and that the experience I had of doing all of this was more than enough for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m way grateful for that iPod shuffle I got, but it wasn’t necessary at all. I am looking forward to driving by these neighborhoods in the near future and seeing the kids out playing on the bikes that I played a small part in getting for them.
So what’s next? Well, first off I need to get back on the bike. Once that happens, I can begin thinking about our 2007 campaign. We’ve said, and it’s been published now that our goal for next year is to provide 1000 bikes. Sitting here today, a year away, I can see that this is a very realistic goal. I hope that each and everyone of you reading this can be a part of next years experience.
brian
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