Thank You!

A big thanks to everyone who made our Bike and Build fundraiser such a huge success! Our friend Pat who spent the night taking pictures during the event sent a whole bunch my way, so I'm happy to share them. But first, whether you came from out-of-state to attend, contributed a raffle prize, or placed bids on our silent auction prizes... thank you!


How about some fundraising updates?! Well, from the night of the fundraiser alone, we raised an astounding $1,771! Also, some of you may know that my Uncle John handcrafted a tattoo machine, he then sold on ebay. 100% of those proceeds went to Bike and Build. That puts our contribution to affordable housing projects across the US at well beyond our goal of $4,000... and makes it $5,486. Wow. You are all amazing. Thank you!


The picture above is our huge raffle table. My Aunt Shellie, in no time, managed to beautify the table and arrange all the items for our bidding pleasure. Some of the notable wins were Scott Lombardo winning a sweet desk clock, and then promptly giving it away to my mom's coworker.... what a guy! Also, Andrew was very excited to win two folding chairs for tailgating the Jimmy Buffett show this summer.


So thank you all for attending, contributing, and wishing me well for the journey! I've been training hard these past weeks. A couple of days ago I biked 65 miles from Providence to Boston on these great back roads that wound through Cumberland, RI to Franklin, MA, and then eventually to Mark's apartment in Jamaica Plain. I also had a great 50 mile day riding around the super scenic bike paths in Lily's area of Northampton and Amherst.


If you haven't checked this out yet, Bike and Build has created a great way to follow riders during the cross country trip. This site has a map that will show my location during the summer. It'll also show pictures taken during the trip, and has a quick link to this blog. As always, thanks for checking out the blog, and I'll have more updates soon on our departure... just about two weeks to go!