http://www.pdsnoki.org/
Fundraising Goal: $9,000, or $9 per kilometer!!! $5,138 raised so far from 58 donors! We're more than halfway there!
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On Saturday, September 27, after getting my bike back to the bike shop to be rebuilt from the tattered box, I flew back to Cincinnati to spend a week with my family before starting my new job in Washington in early October. It was such a joy to see my parents again after such a wild trip -- and also to get a chance to catch up with current events -- shocking as that has been for all of us. Thanks very much to Claude Sauvageot for the great picture of my parents above.Monday night, we got together with the other families in the PDSNOKI, over at the LaRosa's pizza restaurant on Boudineau in Cincinnati. We talked about the trip and went through the contributions we had already received by check. The group was very pleased and that night, the web donations page went up. I sent out the message to friends and family asking them to contribute online.
Withing a few hours, I was in awe at the response. Since then about 40 generous contributions have come in from all corners of the world. Thanks so much to friends, family, friends of the family, former colleagues, classmates -- everyone who has sent in a contribution. It means so much to me, my parents and all the hard-working folks at PDSNOKI. Please keep the donations coming -- we're 57% of the way to out $9,000 goal!
The ride is long over now and so this will probably be the last blog I write, but there are a few thoughts I'd like to share in this final installment. On such a wet and cold ride where every mile and every day required me to grit my teeth and keep going for the cause, the two greatest forces that sustained me were: (1) knowing that all of you were out there with support, both financial and moral; and (2) hearing from so many of you about how your lives have been affected by Parkinson's disease. The latter in particular reminded me over and over again why I was there and how important it was to keep riding!
Second, I want to write a little bit about the great people who run PDSNOKI. This is a dedicated, hard-working group of volunteers who have raised so much money -- some of it their own -- for Parkinson's research, and I want to thank them heartily for all the work they have done to get this effort on its feet, as well as their support for my ride. THANK YOU!!!
