Fundraising, and bicycles

I'm very happy to be back in Atlanta, even if only for a few days. It's awfully nice to sleep in my own bed, and use my own shower. Even silly little stuff like having a coffee maker that I know how it works is nice.

Enough smalltalk: gentle readers, I want you to consider donating to a fundraising ride I'm doing at the end of the month for the Children's Hospital Foundation of Denver. As some of you know, I'm not very good at fundraising, in large part because I don't like asking for money. So, while I may or may not hit you up personally by email, I'd really like you to consider donating.

The Children's Hospital Courage Classic is a three day, 155 mile bike ride up and down mountain passes in Colorado I'll be riding in honor of J's best friend from medical school, Gretchen. She died in New Orleans in a boating accident in 2005, right at the end of her pediatrics residency, just before returning to Colorado to be a pediatrician in Rifle.

Gretchen's father and brothers have been riding this ride for the last few years, to honor her life, and her commitment to pediatric medicine, which she was natural at: she had an immense amount of love, compassion, dedication. She was genuinely one of the kindest people I have ever known.

Gretchen's death was, in a strange way, sort of caused by Hurricane Katrina (which I flew to New Orleans to assist with protests, rebuilding, and resistance work around, and to stay at Gretchen and Frank's house, only to show up on the doorstep and find out they had drowned two days before.) This drowning was a little different than the ones we heard so much news coverage of: Gretchen and Frank went out in a boat that Frank had built on Lake Pontchartrain shortly after the hurricane, it capsized in high winds, and they held on for hours: long enough to shred their lifejackets from the friction of the boat bobbing up and down. Before the hurricane, a boat floating out on Lake Pontchartain within a half mile of the Pontchartrain Causeway would have been cause for alarm. Not so after the hurricane, when debris was still floating throughout the lake, thoughout New Orleans. So for J and I, and perhaps for Gretchen and Frank's families, the official death toll from Katrina should be 1,838.

I've wanted to do this ride in previous years, and the stars all lined up this year: I'm going to fly back to Detroit, ride my bike from there to Denver, and do the ride. Then maybe I'll ride to California and thank some of you in person for donating. That remains up in the air.

Okay. Writing that made me cry, so I'm going to wrap up. Please consider donating toward my measly $300 fundraising goal at: www.couragetours.com/siteapps/personalpage/SearchPage.aspx?c=tmL0KbN0LxH&b=5612731, and plugging in my name. Any amount you can afford is awesome. Really. Thank you.