A Bike Story for Cory
http://bikestory4cory.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/ABikeStoryForCory




Hello!

I realized that as Mac and I started to get caught up in promoting our ride over facebook and our blog that we need to provide a general overview of what we are doing. So I will start at the beginning, explaining what exactly we are doing and how you can help. To start, we are Drew Gottman and Mac Sullivan, two Hellgate High School students who are riding Salsa sponsored bikes across the United States this Summer for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). We will be riding for Cory Stalling, an extraordinary 11 year old kid who attends Paxson Elementary School. He is an extraordinarily brave kid who has battled this disease for his entire life, and we are honored to be riding for him. This bike ride will serve as our senior project with Arlen Hall as our mentor.

What is Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD)?
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a genetic, degenerative muscular disease that shows up almost always in males. It occurs in about 1 in 3500 people. What happens is the essential muscular protein Dystrophin is unable to be produced by the body. What this causes is a gradual deterioration of all muscles in the body, including cardiac muscles. The average lifespan of someone with DMD is 30 years old. However I believe this entertaining and inspiring video can explain DMD better than I can.

The Ride:
We are departing Seaside, Oregon on Memorial Day. We will be riding with Ty Miller, a really cool Kansas college student who is a leader in training for the JettRide (http://jettride.jettfoundation.org/), a ride that fundraises a ton of money for DMD. We will be riding into Missoula on or near June 6-7! From here we will continue onto Minneapolis MN by June 30. On July 1st we will be joining with the JettRide. Along with 12-14 other teens we will travel across the Midwest to Pleasant Point, NJ; arriving there on August 3. Cory will be there to greet us as we arrive!!! Everyone, who wants to, will be able to track our progress via a Spot GPS unit (this will be donated, purchased, or borrowed for our trip).

Fundraising: Our fundraising will be broken into 3 categories.
1. Self Contained Ride from Seaside to Minneapolis we will be participating in DMD events and spending time with DMD families as we ride. We need to raise $5000 total or $2500 per rider for this part of the ride. This money will be put towards food, transportation, equipment, camping, and other miscellaneous expenses. We plan to raise this money through direct donations and our ride-a-thon fundraiser. We have selected a number of Missoulians on Bicycles (MOBI) rides over the course of this spring (March - May) that will sum to approximately 300 miles riding. Donors can pledge an amount per mile or a flat sum. You can access this pledge form on this link or access it either on our blog (http://bikestory4cory.blogspot.com/) or our facebook page. If you could pledge even a small amount this would help us immensely for motivation for these rides, bringing awareness to MOBI rides, and get the word out on our self-contained ride.

2. Equipment: We have a list of equipment that we will need in order to accomplish this ride. Salsa bicycles (http://salsacycles.com/) has generously donated bicycles for this ride and we are being sponsored by them. We also need a camera, bike computers, extra tires, tubes, panniers, maps, etc. We plan to raise this money through business sponsorships and donations.

3. JettRide: Participating in the JettRide is going to be a great opportunity for us to do the second leg of our trip! We'll have the opportunity to meet other teens and do some great activities, but really the point of doing this is to raise money and bring awareness to DMD. We have committed to raising $3500 a piece for the JettRide. These donations are tax deductible and can be made through a page (soon to be set up) on the JettRide website.

How You Can Make A Difference:

• Spread the Word - "Like" our Facebook page, share our posts from our blog and our page with others, talk about it with friends or other cyclists, let us know if we should contact anyone about events, fundraising or equipment.
• Help us Fundraise - Email our bike-a-thon pledge sheet out to other people, donate to our self-contained ride or the JettRide using or paypal link, contribute gear to our equipment list.
• Help bring awareness to DMD - Let's all give a helping hand to Cory Stalling and others like him and bring awareness to DMD and their cause. Don't forget: this is what our ride is about!!!!!!