Fundraising is harder than riding.

$38,000 is a lot of money. What was I thinking? Ten dollars a mile seemed pretty reasonable until I started doing the math. It will take 100 people donating $380 to reach that goal. I doubt that will happen. We could go after 1,000 people for $38 dollars each, but that’s a lot of people. Corporate sponsors (or donors) haven’t been forthcoming. (If you work for a company that might donate, let us know!) It will take a mix of all denominations from all sorts of people to get us to $38,000 dollars.

People are incredibly generous. It’s very humbling. A retired professor, who I know only in passing, e-mailed his encouragement and sent in a $380 check (only 99 more people to go!). Someone I worked with 20 years ago sent in another $380 check, as did a former girlfriend (97 people to go). A member of my church gave me $500 in an envelope. Students have walked up to me with $50 checks. On a student’s budget, that’s a lot - and these are not students in my class trying to influence their grades! I could go on, the acts of individual generosity are many.

Michelle, Elijah’s Promise’s development diva is dynamite. She set up the “kick off” event. It attracted not only the football team, but lots of press. This resulted in “above the fold” coverage in three papers. However one paper put my picture in the obituary section. I’m not sure what that means. When I write donor letters to my friends, Michelle gets them into a readable format, back to me to sign, and mails them out. She keeps track of the money coming in and all the thank you letters going out. Having raised funds for other rides on my own, I really appreciate Michelle. She lets me concentrate on riding, not fundraising.

$38,000 is a lot of money. We will get there.