Fundraising - last push!!

Starting June 21, I will be cycling from Los Angeles, California to New York City (a distance of more than 6200km) to raise money for three international charities working to end poverty worldwide: World Renew (www.worldrenew.net), Partners Worldwide (www.partnersworldwide.org) and the Reformed Church in America (www.rca.org).  As part of this ride, I have committed to raising $10,000 for these three groups.  The funds raised go to these charities, not to the costs of the ride. 
 Consider supporting me for:

·         One of the days of the tour

·         One of the weeks of the tour

·         Your birthday

·         An anniversary or other special date

·         A special city or location

I commit to riding with you in mind on the specific day or days you are supporting me and I will keep you in my prayers particularly during that time.
Check out the days and distances below in this email. Decide on a dollar amount  per kilometer to donate to support the fundraising for the Sea to Sea 2013.
 Example  A
$2 per kilometer for August 13, 2013 (the day I cycle through Oshawa) would be a donation of $256.
Example B
$1 per kilometer for the Week 1 Desert Challenge would be $666.
Example C
Your anniversary or birthday times or other special date at  $?? per kilometer
Example D
Colorado Springs  is someplace you’ve always wanted to visit.  We’ll be there on July 15 .  A donation of $3 per kilometer would be $375

You can donate online through http://www.seatosea.org/participant/ava-baker (click “Donate now”) or you can make a cheque payable to “Sea to Sea” with my name on the memo line and mail it to Sea to Sea 2013, Attn Pat Verwey, 3475 Mainway, PO Box 5070 STN LCD 1, Burlington, ON, L7R 3Y8.  Charitable receipts will be issued.  Please let me know by email (avabaker@gmail.com) which time frame you are sponsoring so I can keep you in mind that day!  You can follow my progress (including pictures from the actual trainer ride) on http://avabikeslatonyc.blogspot.ca/ and for more info on the ride you can visit seatosea.org.

Thank you!

Ava Baker

Week 1		Desert Challenge								Km
Monday, June 24: Newport Beach, CA to Redlands, CA										114
Tuesday, June 25: Redlands, CA to Indio, CA										120
Wednesday, June 26: Indio, CA to Desert Center, CA										91
Thursday, June 27: Desert Center, CA to Quartzsite, AZ										112
Friday, June 28: Quartzsite, AZ to Aguila, AZ										125
Saturday, June 29: Aguila, AZ to Phoenix, AZ										104
Total KMs for Week  1										666
Week 2		Reservation Tour								Km
Monday, July 1: Phoenix, AZ to Payson, AZ										147
Tuesday, July 2: Payson, AZ to Huber, AZ										91
Wednesday, July 3: Huber, AZ to St. John, AZ										123
Thursday, July 4: St. John, AZ to Zuni, NM										91
Friday, July 5: Zuni, NM to Rehoboth, NM										70
Saturday, July 6: Rehoboth, NM to Shiprock, NM										160
Total KMs for Week  2										683
Week 3		Rocky Mountain High								Km
Monday, July 8: Shiprock, NM to Ignacio, CO										128
Tuesday, July 9: Ignacio, CO to Pagosa Springs,CO										85
Wednesday, July 10: Pagosa Springs, CO to Del Norte, CO										93
Thursday, July 11: Del Norte, Co to Salida, CO										131
Friday, July 12: Salida, CO to Cañon City, CO										96
Saturday, July 13: Cañon City, CO to Colorado Springs, CO										91
Total KMs for Week  3										624
Week 4		Prairie Tour								Km
Monday, July 15: Colorado Springs, Co to Limon, CO										125
Tuesday, July 16: Limon, CO to Burlington, CO										128
Wednesday, July 17: Burlington, CO to Colby, KS										112
Thursday, July 18: Colby, KS to Norton, KS										123
Friday, July 19: Norton, KS to Red Cloud, NE										96
Saturday, July 20: Red Cloud, NE to Fairbury, NE										149
Total KMs for Week  4										733
Week 5	Heartland Ride										Km
Monday, July 22: Fairbury, NE to Hickman, NE											122
Tuesday, July 23: Hickman, NE to Sidney, IA											115
Wednesday, July 24: Sidney, IA to Diagonal, IA											110
Thursday, July 25: Diagonal, IA to Chariton, IA											131
Friday, July 26: Chariton, IA to Pella, IA											67
Saturday, July 27: Pella, IA to Iowa City, IA											147
Total KMs for Week  5											693.0
Week 6	Midwest Dash										Km
Monday, July 29: Iowa City, IA to Fulton, IL											138
Tuesday, July 30: Fulton, IL to Serena, IL											130
Wednesday, July 31: Serena,IL to Illiana, IL											133
Thursday, August 1: Illiana, IL to Bridgman, MI											106
Friday, August 2: Bridgman, MI to Holland, MI											120
Saturday, August 3: Holland, MI to Grand Rapids, MI											86
Total KMs for Week 6											712
Week 7	International Crossing										Km
Monday, August 5: Grand Rapids, MI to Lairsburg, MI											122
Tuesday, August 6: Lairsburg, MI to Imlay City, MI											126
Wednesday, August 7: Imlay City, MI to Sarnia, ON											118
Thursday, August 8: Sarnia, ON to London, ON											98
Friday, August 9: London, ON to Breslau, ON											115
Saturday, August 10: Breslau, ON to Ancaster, Hamilton, ON											86
Total KMs for Week  7											666
Week 8	Oh Canada										Km
Monday, August 12: Ancaster, Hamilton, ON to Ajax, ON											125
Tuesday, August 13: Ajax, ON to Trenton, ON											128
Wednesday, August 14: Trenton, ON to Kingston, ON											96
Thursday, August 15: Kingston, ON to Brockville, ON											112
Friday, August 16: Brockville, ON to Cornwall, ON											112
Saturday, August 17: Cornwall, ON to Montreal, QC											114
Total KMs for Week 8											686
Week 9				Hudson Valley Cruise							Km
Monday, August 19: Montreal, QC to Ausable Chasm, NY																120
Tuesday, August 20: Ausable Chasm, NY to Whitehall, NY																112
Wednesday, August 21: Whitehall, NY to Albany, NY																128
Thursday, August 22: Albany, NY to Poughkeepsie, NY																120
Friday, August 23: Poughkeepsie, NY to Nyack, NY																106
Saturday, August 24: Nyack, NY to Staten Island, New York, NY																56
Total KMs for Week  9																642

Things I'm looking forward to

I was visiting with my lovely cousin, Janina, in Vancouver a few weeks ago, and she asked me what I was looking forward to about the Sea to Sea tour.  I hemmed and hawed for a few minutes, only having fears and worries come into my mind (what if I get sick while I'm riding...I don't want to ride in the rain...what if my knee hurts...what will I do when I get saddle sores...what if i get tired of my sleeping mat...).  So, in the spirit of thinking positive, here are a few of the things I'm looking forward to about the tour (I'm sure there are more, but this is what I can come up with right now!)

1. Riding with my dad

I love my dad.  He's the best.  I'm so excited to get to spend 9 whole weeks with him on our bikes.  I'm excited that when I feel frustrated or anxious, he will be there to give me a hug and tell me to go to bed.  I think it will be so amazing to share this adventure with him.

2. Having my mom along

I love my mom.  She's the best.  I'm so excited to get to spend 9 whole weeks with her as a support driver.  I haven't lived at home since I was 18, so to get to be close to my mom for this challenge will be awesome.  I also think she will be an awesome support driver and since she's been giving my snacks my whole life, I'm looking forward to her giving me snacks again.

3. Camping

Yes, I'm a bit apprehensive about having to sleep on an air mattress for 9 weeks and for setting up/taking down in the rain, but I didn't get to camp at all last summer, and I have an awesome tent, and I just love camping, so I'm very excited to get to sleep in the great outdoors ALL summer!

4. The people

I am excited about meeting all the cyclists from all over Canada and the US.  I'm excited to get to ride with them and hang out with them and fellowship with them.  To share the struggles on the climbs and the speed on the downhills.  Because I move a lot for work, I don't always get to be in community, and I'm looking forward to 9 weeks of being with family in Christ!

5. The scenery

There's a LOT I haven't seen in the USA in terms of geography, and I'm excited to get to see some more of a beautiful country.  I haven't been to most of the places in California we are going to, and while I was in Pheonix with my brother Jared on our road trip 3 years ago, I loved Arizona and am excited to get to see it again!  New Mexico is not a place I've visited and I'm psyched to get to scope out some future ski vacations in Colorado.  I've not spent much time in the middle of the US, either, and I've never even been to New York State besides to drive in it (shameful, considering I grew up in Ontario, I know).

6. Seeing old friends

I've met a lot of Americans through travels etc, and I'm hoping to get to meet up with some of them during the tour!  I am also very excited that the tour will run right through Southern Ontario, so I can meet up with some old friends there (warm beds and laundry facilities would be appreciated...hint, hint...)!!

7. The riding

I have really developed a love for being on my bike.  I'm not fast, I'm not particularly graceful, but I do love to go zooming around on my bicyclette!!!  I'm sure there will be sore times and hard times, but I hope this ride helps develop my love of riding even more!

8. The sleep

9-whole-weeks-without-call.  Full stop.

9. The spiritual retreat

I get so busy in my day to day life that I frequently forget to be close to God, to dedicate myself to prayer and to seek His will first.  I'm excited about taking this time to ride my bike and rededicate myself to the practice of prayer and reading my Bible

Well, that list didn't take me very long to come up with....guess I'm pretty psyched about the whole tour! 

 

Busting my Butt to Bike for Billing

Well, I did it!  1 long phone call with my mom, 1 short phone call with my brother, 1 Harry Potter movie and 3 hours later, I finished Biking for Billings on Thursday. I was surprised at how slow I was, only completing 67 km for the 3 hrs - must have been all the thrilling Quidditch matches slowing the old legs down or something.

Thank you to everyone who donated!  I am so excited to have so many people join with my to meet my goal of $10,000 for 10,000km of cycling in 1 year!

Here's some photos from the afternoon:

My setup for the afternoon.  The virgin Mary belongs to the people I'm house sitting for, but I'll admit, she was pretty good company...note the HP on the screen!

Fueling with a protein shake from my friend Kat!!

Still smiling after 3 hrs!

PROOF!!!! :)

Fundraising update: I'm at $5500!!!!  More than halfway!!!!  You can still donate on my donation page

Biking for Billings Pre-Post

Well, today's the day!  I can't say I'm really looking forward to riding 3 hours on an indoor trainer.  And to top things off, I have a pretty miserable cold (which, incidentally, is one of my big fears for the ride this summer - I'm such a baby when I'm even a teeny bit sick, so I don't want to have to ride up a Colorado mountain pass with a cold!  Guess I'll have to do lots of handwashing!).  However, I'm super motivated by all the support I've received so far!  I'm excited to get on the trainer because of everyone who's donated already. 

If you haven't read any of the previous posts, here's what's up for today:  I will be spending 3 hours on my indoor cycle trainer this afternoon in order to raise money for 3 charities supported by my LA to NYC bike ride this fall.  I'm asking people to donate their earnings for those three hours to the cause.  My donation website is here: http://www.seatosea.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1039785&supId=365932844.  I'm currently exactly halfway to my fundraising goal ($10,000!!!).

Update on the timing: my schedule got shuffled a bit, so I will likely be on the trainer from 2pm-5pm instead of 1-4, but trust me, I'll be peddling every painful second of 3 hours! :)

Check back later for updates and pics!

Biking for Billings

First of all, an apology.  I was going to write monthly and I have failed miserably.  Partly because I am lazy and would rather watch QI than write a blog post, and partly because I think there are some things that are too difficult or too personal or too easily misunderstood to post online in a public forum.  I would love to chat anyone about it on the phone or in person!

I do want to let anyone who is interested know about my latest, greatest fundraiser: Biking for Billings!  On February 7 from 1-4 pm, I will be riding my indoor cycle trainer and have asked any willing participants to donate their earnings from these three hours in support of the Sea to Sea tour.  All the money raised goes directly to the charities, and not to my expenses on the tour.  It's called "Biking for Billings" because originally I just asked staff physician friends of mine to donate their earnings, which are called "billings", but I wanted to extend the invitation to anyone who is interested. 

While 3 hours is a relatively short period of time out of the work week, it's a long time to ride an indoor trainer, so I'm hoping people will consider making a financial contribution to this effort.  Donations can be made online through http://tinyurl.com/bikingforbilling.



3 hours on the trainer will hopefully be a piece of cake compared to my first century ride, which i completed this summer!
 

I'm going to post some pics here of my indoor ride (which will be my longest indoor ride yet!  My longest to date has been a 70km indoor ride on New Year's Eve to reach my goal of riding 1500km between Sept and Dec, 2012). 

Riding update:  I'm currently at 1766 km!!!
Fundraising update: I'm at over $4000!!  WOOHOO!!! Thank you everyone!

So what?

So what?

When I used to write essays in high school, my mom (an English teacher) would often proofread them for me. She would mark them up the way she marked up her students essays and at the end of a sentence or paragraph, she would frequently write “So what?” This marking indicated that I was not being clear in the direction of my writing or that I had failed to extend the facts I had written into application of the ideas.

So, I'm hoping this post will be the “So what?” of my journey. Why have I decided to do the ride? What's the point of taking 9 weeks off to cycle from LA to NYC? So what?

I'm sure many of you are aware of the terrible poverty statistics in our world: a child dies every x seconds from poverty, blah blah blah million people live on less than a dollar a day etc etc. If you've never heard a statistic like that, then I encourage you do some of your own research of the state of the world and the extent of the economic or material poverty that exists. These are important numbers, but a few things have happened in the last few weeks that emphasize for me the extent of evil in the world.

The first thing is the loss of a teenager who used to be my neighbour. A teenager. The injustice of this fills me in a way I can't describe. My heart extends to his friends and family.

The second thing is the (false, I believe) imprisonment of a man who I met in Central America who, up until the time of his arrest, had been working tirelessly and with great risk to his own life to fight against the sexual exploitation of children in his cities' active human trafficking trade.

I'm on vacation right now (more on the feelings of guilt associated with taking a long vacation while trying to seek understanding about poverty in the world later, I'm sure). We just left New Zealand, so Lord of the Rings has been on my mind in these last few weeks. One passage that has stood out to me is in The Two Towers, when Theodan, the king of Rohan, faced with the loss of his city to the armies of Sarumon says in despair, “What can man do against such reckless hate?” (or evil, or injustice).

This is the question in my heart. What can we do against such evil as children dying every x seconds? What can we do against the blah blah blah million people living on less than a dollar a day? What can we do when a young person is killed? What can we do when someone working for justice and freedom for children is faced with injustice and imprisonment?

Aragorn's answer to Theodan is simple, “Ride out to (meet it)”.

So, this bike tour (and fundraising effort) is my tool to ride out and meet it. It is my imperfect offering (thank you James Orbinksi for this phrase). I know that it is inadequate, insufficient, probably reflects some deep colonial attitude of superiority in me, and, as with all poverty alleviating efforts, holds the potential for harm. But I MUST ride out an meet it. I MUST act. I can no longer sit quietly and say with my mouth and think with my head that this stuff bothers me but remain inactive. And I believe that through grace, my imperfect, inadequate, superiority-based, insufficient actions, will be made perfect, humility-based, and sufficient through the power of a perfect God.

Reading update: I'm currently reading “When Helping Hurts: How to alleviate poverty without hurting the poor and yourself” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert.

Biking update: I did a lot of work on the bike before leaving for vacation, as I only have sporadic access to bikes here (mostly rentals and mountain bikes). My current total is 867km, and my goal is to complete 1000km by early December.

 

Fundraising update: I'm already at more than 10% of my goal for fundraising!!! Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far! If you are interested in contributing to this cause, or finding out more about it, you can go to http://www.seatosea.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1039785&lis=1&kntae1039785=B1AFE215E7BF4DF4967C3CF5C427A7BA&supId=365932844