This is one charity cycle ride you DON’T want to miss out on

This is a guest post by Rica Mendes. She is a coaching client of mine and is organising a charity ride May Angels Lead Us In This is an amazing event and I urge you to give her your full support. If you can’t make the ride then please support Rica by RETWEETing this post to help spread the word.

Despite having a ridiculous number of “friends” on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, the reality is that the people that I consider my “real” friends can be counted on my appendages. They are my true family.

On April 22, 1999, one of my most trusted friends died at the age of 25. We had a strange brother/sister-like relationship, that I know some people wondered about. It was the kind of relationship that Harry told Sally could not exist between a man and a woman.

But, I think that’s because, when it was just us, we weren’t a man and a woman. We were a pair of goofy, giggly 8-year olds up to no good.

I met Ari Wolov in 1992 on a year-long program sponsored by Young Judaea called Year Course. Essentially, you spend your freshman year of college in Israel, living on kibbutz, studying in university, travelling and hiking and having an adventure across the country, and, at the time, spending time training with the Israeli Defence Forces.

Ari and I were in different groups, but whenever we had the chance to hang out, we did. Years later, Ari introduced me to my ex-husband, and at our wedding, he met my best friend from when I was 15, Lisa Blocher. They fell in love immediately, and were soon engaged.

And then, April 22, just past 11 PM, the phone rang. Ari had died of a massive heart-attack.

Fast forward to the Fall of 2008. Thanks to Facebook, I reconnect with an old friend from Young Judaea who is now a competitive mountain-bike racer and an avid road cyclist. I take up cycling, frankly, to impress him.

In January of 2009, it was announced that Hadassah, the parent organization, had suffered financial cut-backs, and, while not cutting all financial support to the movement, it would have to make changes to Young Judaea.

The recession had hit the movement hard. And, to compound the problem, demand for scholarships soared, while the incoming flow of funds slowed down.

He and I began to connect with other alumni of the movement who were upset about the cutbacks, wanted to help, but didn’t have the checkbooks to just fund the programs ourselves. We struggled to find ways that we could fill in the unavoidable gaps.

April 22, 2009. 10 years after Ari died. I’d been regularly commuting to work on my bike. I was looking at doing my first metric century ride. At the same time, I was desperately trying to find some kind of ridiculously challenging ride, as well as a way to fund the movement, to impress said friend I reconnected with. And then it hit me, as I was blogging about Ari. I called my friend.

“Aaron. I had an idea. I know how we can raise money for scholarships, Ari’s Memorial Scholarship Fund specifically, and really get some awareness going.”

“What?”

“Let’s, you and I, and maybe some other people, ride from Boston to Fort Lauderdale. Let’s do it in Ari’s memory, get sponsorships, and tell as many people as possible. Let’s get alumni to volunteer their time, cheer us on, and rally support together.”

“You’re insane. You bike 12 miles each way to and from work. Do you have any clue what you’re talking about doing? _I_ don’t even know if I could do that!”

“Yes, you can. And you will. I don’t care if I can. I’m _going_ to. And you are, too.”

And that was that. The idea was out there. And I committed to doing it.

Now, here we are in January. It’s out there. A reality. It is going to happen. In addition to Ari’s scholarship fund, we’ll dedicate one leg in Florida to the memory of Shira Kansas, another friend who died around the same time, who also has a fund in her name.

And, for those LIVESTRONG Challenge registrants, we will also donate a portion of the proceeds to LIVESTRONG. Plans are being put into place to also contribute to your individual LIVESTRONG Challenge accounts if you meet the fundraising minimums.

To date, almost a dozen people have said they want to do the FULL ride with us. So, starting May 23, 2010, we will take off from Marblehead, MA and ride, leg by leg, over the course of 7 days, down the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, until we end up by Ari’s grave, for a memorial service.

We aren’t biking all 2,000+ miles. We’ll ride legs of 70-100 miles per day, and have buses transport us from one end-point to the next start-point. We invite people to join us for the full ride, half, or just for the day (or as far as they can go.)

We’re still filing our non-profit status and getting our registration info up. And we’re actively soliciting donors, volunteers and assistance in coordination, goods and services, transportation, support, etc.

If you’re interested in biting off more than you can chew, join us. We’ll be riding with angel’s wings.

The “May Angels Lead Us In” Ride in Memory of Ari S. Wolov (and Shira Kansas)
May 23 – June 6, 2009
Boston, MA to Fort Lauderdale, FL

For more information please visit May Angels Lead Us In
- Rica Mendes

Please give your support to Rica’s event

This is a new web site and I would really appreciate your help in raising awareness. If you enjoyed this article please take a moment to comment or share it on Facebook or Twitter. I would really appreciate it. Thanks and keep cycling.

Luke Bream

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P. P. S. Are you getting the fitness and weight loss goals you desire? Maybe I can help you. To find out more check out Cycling Training

shira kansas

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