Great day yesterday Brice...thank you for the ride across Lake Pontchatrain...Sheriff...nice speedy glide into Fort Worth, a little less water would have been better...
It really takes a lot to organize this ride. We start several months in advance. We have a marketing consultant we meet with almost every Wednesday for dinner. (Donates her time) We have media partners that need to plan weeks ahead. We have logistics, like where are we staying each night. You can’t just drop in anywhere with 21 guys and get a room. We have great sponsors, but we had to plan that too. Who’s going to ask? Who DO you ask? What do you ask for? The guys scatter all over town, telling the story, how we help children to get those sponsors. Then we have to plan our personal lives, so we can go out for two weeks. We pay ALL our own expenses, so we need to save up some money. Many of us work, so we need to save a little vacation time. We need to make sure our work continues while we are gone. Country’s doesn’t hang out a sign, “Be back in two weeks”...Hair needs cut, corporate jets need maintenance and somewhere, Grainger customers need their stuff. And this year had some different challenges. Scott was working on the Midnight Express, and we also put on Rockin’ the River, which took a tremendous amount of planning as well. Each of us were trying to take vacations with family, beach trips and other events. The day we pull out on the ride, all the stress is gone, it’s now the easy part, just ride. But there are people (Karen) back in Columbus that have a tremendous amount of work keeping up with us on the road. This is not easy. It takes a ton of effort from a bunch of dedicated people. And all we are trying to do is make a difference in one child’s life. Every bit of planning, every meeting, every phone call is focused on the children. Every decision is made from that lens. What we do is nothing compared to what circumstances the kids we are trying to help face every day. We are trying to tell a story, to capture your mind, to touch your heart, so you can see what we see. The difference we can make is right there. Go ahead and scroll on down to the donate now button. Leave a quick comment here that you too want to join us in making a difference. I’ll have more about the people side of this work tomorrow.
Today’s song of the day...Got No Shame by Brother Cane.