A great quote

This quote was on the back of a wonderful letter from a friend of a friend; the letter had a few more kind words of encouragement and a $20 check for Chacaya...could you ask for a more fitting kind of support for this project?

"the greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

Retaining Wall Construction to begin soon!!!

HUGE news! We just got word from David and the other PEGPartners that with the $5,000 we have raised thus far, the first payment has been sent to Chacaya to begin the construction of the retaining wall for the school! Construction will commence soon! This is wonderful news, to see the money raised already being put directly into Chacaya village so soon; the money we are raising is being fed directly into this place, for its children. Simply wonderful!

The property on which this school is being built is nestled on the side of a steep mountain, so before the actual school structure can begin, a retaining wall must first be built to level the ground and prevent landslides. This is the first step.

More exciting news: the "GuatemalRUN Bonanza 5K" happened on May 4 in Sewanee, TN, and resulted in an inspiring response from the campus community. Already, over $1,300 has been raised as a result of this small 5K run, and we expect dozens of more gifts in the coming days. Utterly fantastic. We are nearing the half-way mark for our goal, and I feel the momentum building; hopefully the half-way mark, and ultimately the final goal of $20,000, is not far off.

More soon!

Eric

We have a new total for our fundraising:

$4,165!!!!

This is fantastic.  We are getting there. 
We are heading into May, the last full month 
before we begin our ride across Canada. 
Keep spreading the word!!!!

Those kids need a school!

Shirt Design for GuatemalRUN Bonanza 5K Run:

Website Totally Updated!

Our website, www.canadacrossing08.org, received a total update today. This is totally great. The changes we made totally include:
- A map of our Route (check it out and see if you know anything about the places we hope to pass through. Any words of wisdom would be great. Email us!)
- A totally great table of our tentative daily schedule for the ride, complete with daily distances and towns we hope to stay in.
- A revised expenses list
- Almost all of the website is now viewable in Spanish!
- A new sponsor has been added

Keep checking in with us as we accelerate into the last several weeks before the ride! A fundraising total totally coming soon...

The "GuatemalRUN Bonanza" 5K Run!

Efforts are moving along well at Sewanee! Eric has recently joined forces with a local sorority, Alpha Deta Theta, to organize a 5-km fun run on Sunday, May 4, 2008. The name of the run:

The "GuatemalRUN Bonanza 5K!"

The run begins at 10am and takes participants on a tour of the Sewanee campus and greater domain. All entrance fees and proceeds will go DIRECTLY to the Chacaya School Project, helping us reach our goal of $20,000 to build a school for 140 children. Updates on the run will surely ensue, but if you must know more, please email us at canadacrossing08@gmail.com.

Airline Tickets Donated!!!

Great News! We recently received news that our airline tickets to and from Canada are being purchased by a family of friends from back home, the Joiner's. These wonderful people have known Jason and Eric since early high school, and have been a second family to them over the years. While having Jason over for dinner a couple weeks ago, they offered to buy our airline tickets for the journey. Needless to say, Jason was flabbergasted and speechless. This is a huge deal! The airline tickets were our greatest expense, and we can now concentrate on the next greatest expense, the sleeping bags.

A great relief and a hugely encouraging piece of news. Mr. & Mrs. Joiner, thank you again.