Why We Ride

We are the lucky ones. The ones whose sense of adventure has been allowed to grow inside of us from an early age, fostered by books, family and friends. The challenge is to take this gift and to pass it along to others.

My close friend Jon is the embodiment of the adventurer's spirit. Over the past year, he has hiked the Appalachian Trail, moved to Jackson WY and learned to telemark ski and planned a 3 month, 6,000 mile tour around the perimeter of the country. When he called me to tell me of his plan, something inside of me clicked. After a year of helping my father launch a new company, I realized that I had strayed far from how I imagined my 20's to be. It was now time for a major realignment of life priorities, I would join the adventure.

While this trip offered an opportunity to quench the ever present wanderlust present inside both of us, we also wanted to fulfill lifelong goals to strive be a force for positive change in our communities. With these goals in mind, we opted to use our ride to raise money for an incredible charity, Reach Out and Read ( Reach Out and Reads website ),an incredible charity that works to make literacy an integral part of pediatric primary care, with a focus on disadvantaged youth. The program is incredibly effective; numerous peer reviewed studies demonstrate that children exposed to the program have increased their language test scores considerably over those not exposed, and it has the added advantage of helping parents get involved in the education of their child.

When I think back to my childhood, some of my most cherished memories are of my mother reading me a story as I lay in bed. Whether it was the adventures of Charlie in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory or Max's romp with monsters in 'Where the Wild Things Are,' reading instilled in me a sense of wonder and adventure which carries me to this day. I can think of no greater goal than to share the gift of reading with children around the country. While we ride, we plan on stopping at various clinics and meeting with children and sharing stories of our adventure, and stress the importance of literacy in everyday life. If you would like to support us, click on the link above and find the "Get Involved" tab, we'd ask that you place "ride for ROR" in "in the honor of" section.

- Erik