UPDATE Â MAY 24: 🙂 INCREDIBLE!!! Because of tremendous generosity, I was able to raise $3544 for Habitat for Humanity! I am so very grateful! We leave on our 4-day, 240 mile journey. There are a total of 24 riders and we are all very excited about this challenge. Some of the highlights of our trip will include daily evening dinners with Habitat families in on each town stop. Additionally, on the second day, we will meet with state legislators in Harrisburg to make our voices heard regarding the need for safe, decent affordable housing for all.
UPDATE MAY 9, 2013: To date, I have raised over $3000 for this incredible cause! I HAVE HAD AN INCREDIBLE RESPONSE FROM FRIENDS AND FAMILY! THANK YOU! I still have a few more days to get some funds in, but I am inspired to keep raising funds until our fundraising pages shut down! This process has also fuel my desire to find, and perhaps develop, an easier solution that hours of ‘googling’ in finding charity and fundraising rides on the web. Currently, there is no one single place to go for an easy search by state or date. I am hoping I can use my apprenticeship and technology skills to come up with a better solution….keep you posted!
PREVIOUSLY POSTED:
This June, I am part of a group of Habitat for Humanity believers and we will be riding our bikes from Philadelphia to Harrisburg over 4 days to raise awareness about the need for affordable housing for all. As part of this initiative, we are also raising funds via our own fundraising pages ( here is mine with my story of why this means so much to me http://www.habitatphiladelphia.org/cassandra-kings-fundraising-page my goal is to raise over $2500 before the end of this month of April 2013 ). It is really incredible because for every $100 we each are able to raise we can give someone one square foot of housing. the more we raise, the more families we can help!!
This two-wheeled adventure, although really challenging, will go a long way towards making some headway (we hope) towards improving the lives of lower income South Philadelphians. In South Philly alone, there are four new Habitat houses that were finished in early 2012 on Latona street between 22nd and 23rd streets. All four houses have been purchased by low-income, hard-working Philly families (three of the families are single moms). The fourth family has a daughter who is 18 and wheelchair-bound, with severe mobility limitations. the house that Habitat built (and that the family bought) is designed to be fully accessible with a wheelchair, with special fixtures and a bedroom/full bathroom on the first floor to give the daughter far more independence than she had before to move on her own.
After all four houses were purchased, the kids from the families (all around the same ages, about 5 to 10 years old) formed a play group and are often seen riding their bikes up and down their newly-adopted block
🙂
this is such an incredible cause that we are all willing to ride all the way to Harrisburg, by bike, and meet with legislators there on our last day to make the choir of our voices heard
Cass
