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.

New Sponsor!

Great news! Paceline Products (www.pacelineproducts.org) has joined our list of gear sponsors for our upcoming ride. They are providing us with chamois butter (a.k.a. butt lotion. Sounds odd, I know, but a MUST HAVE for a long tour...enough said), water bottles and more. It's great to have their support. We are still seeking more sponsors, if you or your company are interested. Don't forget that all sponsors get their name and contact information displayed on the Sponsors page of our website!

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