Poetry and Cycling

So Eric is back in town for a couple days at the beginning of his Spring Break. In only hours, we have accomplished 2 amazing things:

1) we've planned our route. Check out the website soon to see if we will be passing through your town, or if you know someone who lives along our route!

2) we've written some haikus.

A few we composed together, some others we wrote independently. To inspire you to support our cause, we'll share them here:

1. (by Eric and Jason)

It’s a long, long way
Vancouver to Halifax.
All to build a school.

2. (by Jason & Eric)

We ride our bikes soon
Across all of Canada
Give to Chacaya!

3. (by both of us)

We chose Canada
Because Guatemala is too
Small to bike across.

Things got sillier from here...

4. (Eric wants no credit for this one)

Riding bikes is fun.
Dogs can ride in baskets too,
Barking radio.

5. (another Jason masterpiece)

The chain has caught my pants.
I should not have worn these pants.
I hate these pants now.

6. (Eric wrote this one, I think it is pretty good)

Pedal Pedal on
Pedal pedal pedal on
Pedal pedal on.

7. (Jason wrote this one, but I think it speaks for both of us)

I don’t have money,
So I’ll ride in Canada,
Though that makes no sense.

8. (by Jason...seeing a bear would be bittersweet)

Spandex streaming by
In the Canadian wild
Looks like food to bears.

9. (more about bears, by Jason)

Winnie the Pooh Bear
Must be from America.
Foreign bears are mean.

10. (Eric didn't like this one)

I ran out of food
Riding with my friend Eric.
Now his leg is gone.

We hope this inspires you to support our project in any way you can. More soon!

-J

Fundraising Update!

(we don't know who this guy is, but we respect him. And he was never seen again...)

Great news! We've surpassed the four-digit threshold! Current fundraising total is

$2,065!

While it is great, we realize that we have a long way to go before we reach $20,000. We’d like to reach this goal before the start of our ride – June 23rd!

If you have been planning to give to our project, we encourage you to do so as soon as you can! You can donate online with your credit card at http://www.pegpartners.org/donate.htm
Or, send your donation to

PEG PARTNERS
P.O. Box 551
Montreat, NC 28757

And please remember to designate your donation to the “Chacaya School Project”!

If you have already sent in your donation, we can’t thank you enough. If you are still planning to give, we invite to do so soon; our interim goal is to raise $10,000 by April 15th!

P.S. David and our project made the Bismark Tribune newspages! Check it out:

http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2008/03/03/news/local/149706.txt

New Year's Update

Hey Everybody, Eric and Jason here! (Eric is typing, Jason is on the phone with Eric helping him figure out what to write to you)
It's been a long and eventful January, I hope you all are doing well.
We spent these winter days getting the ball rolling on fundraising for the Chacaya School Project. As of mid-January, our fundraising total passed the $500 mark! A bit of a slow start, but a start nonetheless! We fully expect to pick up the momentum in these coming weeks.
David LaMotte payed a visit to Guatemala earlier this month, and reported back that the Chacaya village was overjoyed to hear of this project. It meant the world to them that friends and family in the States are thinking about their corner of the world. The school year just started down there; about 140 children are attending school in the makeshift "building" at the moment; if all goes well with this fundraising effort, this may be the last year they spend in that structurePublish Post.

TRAINING UPDATE: Things are going well for Jason down in sunny Florida. He's transitioning the focus of his training more towards distance and endurance rather than the usual power training. He's currently signed up for a 6-hour solo mountain bike ride on Sun. Feb. 17th, which is sure to be tiring. He's riding around on his brand-spanking new Trek XO2 cyclocross bike with some modifications to suit our journey across Canada this summer. Eric, being in frigid foggy Sewanee, TN, is keeping busy running and biking whenever the sun decides to come out. He's been enjoying the comfort of his recently purchased bike, a custom Serotta Cour d'Acier. When asked how his new bike felt during a ride, Eric was quoted to respond, "It felt like riding a peaceful sea turtle through the clouds at sunset." You see, Eric is a tall guy, and has never owned a bike that fit him until now. A fitting bike is a necessity for a Cross-Canada ride.

We'll keep working from our end of this project, and we hope you will continue to support us by spreading the word and looking for donation resources these next few weeks. The most important part of the fundraising effort at this stage in the year is to get the word out, to spread the news of our project and what it is for to as many people.

The more people, the more ideas, the more support.

We encourage you to send out our website information and blogspot URL to your friends and family!

Best wishes,
E & J

First Donations Received!

Howdy!
David LaMotte, the co-founder of PEG, a talented singer/songwriter from North Carolina, a dedicated peace activist and good friend, officially kicked off our fundraising initiative with a concert at Sewanee (Eric's college in Tennessee) on Friday, Nov. 16th. Good news: The concert was beautiful, fun and loved by all who attended. The Great News: By the end of the concert, we had collected our first round of donations that will go directly toward the building a school in the Guatemalan village of Chacaya: $31 !!!!

David, Jason and I were ecstatic to receive the charter donations to this effort and make this project a reality. So begins the ambitious fundraising campaign to give $20,000 of help towards Guatemalan schools. Let this be the beginning of a successful charity drive!

Which will be more difficult: riding our bikes across Canada at an average rate of 100 miles per day, or meeting our fundraising goal? Leave the first challenge for us to overcome, but you can help us with the second!

The Adventure Begins...

Greetings, one and all! Our sincerest thanks for your patronage to this blog, and keeping up with all the preparations for our trip. For those of you who haven't checked out our Official Website, you'll find much much more on the actual project, our motivations, and the change we are trying to make at www.canadacrossing08.org.

But here's a quick overview of why we have this blog: We are two people in love with cycling, education, and life; the idea that the things we love can be used to make a significant positive change in the world is an idea to which we are devoting the next year of our lives. We are seeking to raise $20,000 for building a school in the village of Chacaya in Guatemala, through the great non-profit organization PEG (Proyecto para las Escuelas Guatemaltecas, or the Guatemalan School Project). 3,800 miles to raise $20,000 to build a school for 135 Mayan children.

If this project resonates with you, we hope you consider supporting us! By donating (directions on how to do so at our website), asking questions, commenting on this blog, or emailing us.

We will use this blog to announce milestones in our journey before the actual journey, i.e. fundraising updates, reflections on our goal and our purpose, funny stories from our training rides and fundraising efforts, etc. We will update and keep it interesting as often as possible!

Best wishes,
Eric "Spoke-legs" Keen and Jason "Pedal wrench" Haney