Three Media Partners Are Covering Bicycling for a Cause on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Bicycling for a Cause joyfully welcomes its new media partners. A reputated outdoor magazine as well as two well-established local newspapers are planning to cover the Blue Ridge Parkway end-to-end bicycling ride in September 2011 that helps to raise funds for Eliada Homes for Children of Asheville, North Carolina.

Asheville, NC, August 30th, 2011. A very warm welcome and thank you to our three new media partners. We greatly appreciate their help to spread the word about Bicycling for a Cause's Blue Ridge Parkway ride to help raise funds for Asheville's Eliada Homes for Children. The youngsters of Eliada love bicycling and would love to have a few more than their current three bicycles that are available to enjoy the rides around the home and the attached farm. Moreover, the farm hosts the therapeutic animal program, where funds for taking care of llama LLary, horse Kiwi, and all the other animals - big and small - are very well appreciated.

The first editor-in-chief to respond and suggest to print a feature essay of the riders' motivating drivers and experiences during the physically and mentally challenging adventure, was the outdoor magazine that is well-known throughout all of the Southern Appalachians. It's the Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine of Charlottesville, Virginia, that also runs a local office in Asheville, North Carolina. The offer from the magazine to run the article is really great as it has a broad reach and can speak to many Blue Ridge enthusiasts who also have a dream of riding the mountains. We greatly appreciate it.

Asheville's is located in Buncombe county and our neighboring county to the West is Haywood County which has some of the Blue Ridge Parkway's most popular climbs. The roughly 15 mile-long climb from Asheville, NC, up to Mount Pisgah will be mastered by our cyclists on their penultimate day of being in (and on this uphill part, surely out of) the saddle. Haywood County has been served for well more than a century by one and the same newspaper, the Mountaineer. This newspaper publishes local and regional news and they certainly stand out of the crowd: when you visit their website, you will find mostly positive, up-beat news that uplift the readers. We find that remarkable and are glad to hear, that the Mountaineer will be running some of our upcoming press releases.

"We'd like to know what day you're coming through Blowing Rock on your ride - it'd be a perfect photo opportunity" that or something very similar we heard on our answering machine just yesterday. The message had been left by a voice that belonged to the editor of the Blowing Rocket, Blowing Rock's long-time leading newspaper, published on a weekly basis. We were thrilled, of course, by this opportunity. As of today, it'll be day 6 of our tour, or September 17th, that our path crosses this lovely resort town in Western North Carolina, whose population varies between a core of some 2,000; 10,000 in skiing-season; and 20,000 in the Summer.

Upcoming press releases of Bicycling for a Cause will lay out the detailed itinerary of the 469-mile-Bicycling-project for Eliada Homes on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Stay on your toes and be looking forward to them! You can become a sponsor in many ways, every penny makes a difference. And please spread the word: blog about it, share it on Facebook and email your friends who you think would be interested. Many many thanks.

Donation Barometer on the Rise

We are thrilled to announce to be blessed by a couple of anonymous donors, that have brought our donations box up to 32 Cents per mile and cyclist. To do the maths for you, our total sum of donations to Eliada Homes for Children in Asheville, North Carolina, now is $.32 times 469 miles times 2 cyclists, which equals 300 US-Dollars!

Thank you for having a big and generous heart!


If you have decided to pitch in as well, in whatever way, write to us! We'd be thrilled to hear from you.

How Can We Help Your Causes?

The Blue Ridge Parkway is one of those places on this planet that you cannot but fall in love with. A dream of many of its awestruck visitors: to become an End-to-Ender of the Blue Ridge Parkway - getting from the start until the final milestone in one go.

Starting on September 13th, 2011, Cycling for a Cause's end-to-end bicycle ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway is raising funds for Asheville's Eliada Homes - helping children succeed. My cycling buddy Phil from Germany, best-support-vehicle-and-biggest-fan Sophia and I want to achieve the 469 miles in 8 days of cycling, getting 2 rest days in between.

Is there anything in this project, that can help your causes? That's the question we are asking potential sponsors. All sponsorship and contact details you can download here. Please contact me with your suggestions.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Cristof

Rainbow Ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Imagine
It's a pleasantly warm day in August
You decide to honor mother nature's beauty
By enjoying being in it
You have chosen to cycle up a hill, up a mountain
The sun is shining
Your body is working well
In the distance you hear thunder growling, the first clouds are covering the sunlight
A breeze has picked up, it's getting ever so slightly cooler
As the first drops are falling, you feel refreshed
The quick shower washes clean everything around you
As quickly as it came, the rain passes on
All that remains of it
Is a rainbow

Sponsors Are Getting Free PR

It's five more weeks and a few days until the "opening bell" will ring. Just outside Waynesboro, VA, we are going on our way to cycle all 469 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway. They bring us passed Roanoke, VA, Asheville, NC, as well as numerous nature attractions like Mount Mitchell and Devil's Courthouse all the way to Cherokee, NC, in the middle of the Great Smokey Mountains. Our motivation: joy of life ("yes, we feel alive!") and raising funds for a good cause - from the first push into the pedals until the final revolution of our wheels.

This great venture gives us deep satisfaction, as with the intention of "Cycling for a Cause", the trip of ours goes beyond 10 days of cycling. It goes beyond the hearty uphills and the fun downhills. It goes beyond enjoying the gorgeous views of the Blue Ridge Mountains while sweating in the mild September warmth of Western Virginia and North Carolina.

Accompanying our tour, we are keeping the interested public updated by weekly press releases in advance of and daily tour updates during the two weeks of riding. Our project and story may interest local as well as regional members of the printing press, while everybody can follow it online for sure. While the donations we are gathering will go directly to Eliada Homes of Asheville, we welcome sponsors to directly contribute to our budget - to help us help others! We welcome things like a rental bike and spare parts, a bicycle roof holder and fuel for the support vehicle, hotel and camp-site stays, jerseys and other gear, as well as granola bars, sandwiches and fruits. Cash is also welcome, of course.

This website is going to be happy to proudly show off our sponsors logos or ads. Whenever suitable, our frequent press releases will happily mention our sponsors in appropriate and favorable ways; thereby creating valuable, positive PR effects for them. There's also space for their logos on our cycling gear, be it jerseys, shorts or after-ride-T-Shirts; even our support vehicle's white makes a great background for magnetised ad boards, "magnetizing" our sponsors' audience. Everybody who is spending time on the Blue Ridge Parkway at the same time with us is going to see these logos and messages.

Imagine, what a fine occasion this Blue Ridge Parkway Bicycle Ride would be, to hold a sponsor's event like an open house or a "Ride with the Riders" for kids? Plenty of contribution to the community is possible here, while creating further PR potential, that has a long term effect on the business success of our sponsors. So, not only becomes business better, it also becomes more meaningful.

Just like our ride, that started off as a personal challenge of mind, body and spirit. For us, it has now turned into a very meaningful activity. Life is good, love is life.

Final Planning of the Tour

Eight cycling days with only two rest days in between: that's how we are defining the stages of the bicycling tour that is going to lead us through the Blue Ridge Mountains. The most Northern tip of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Milepost 0, just outside Waynesboro, Virginia, serves as the starting point of this adventure. After 469 more mileposts in Southern direction, we are going to reach the other end of "America's Favorite Drive", near Cherokee, North Carolina, in the midst of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

how we want to look like at the end of the ride

The final and detailed planning of the stages will be happening within the next few days from now. So far, the rough plan we have is the following:

1. Welcome-Afternoon-Ride - 30 miles (up to Milepost 30; Buena Vista/Vesuvius VA)
2. 56 miles to Milepost 86 (Peaks of Otter)
3. 83 miles to MP 169 (Rocky Knob)
4. 72 miles to MP 241 (Doughton Park)
5. Rest day, outdoor yoga & meditation, nature outing
6. 71 miles to MP 312
7. 72 miles to MP 384 (Parkway Visitor Center Asheville), including Mt. Mitchell State Park (highest peak East of Mississippi River)
8. Rest day, sightseeing in Asheville, river rafting/canopeeing/simply resting
9. 24 miles up to MP 408 (Mt. Pisgah)
10. 61 miles to MP 469 (Cherokee)

So how does that sound? I am getting more and more excited about this project. The additional benefit, that we are doing it not only for our personal fun and pleasure, but also to raise funds for the Eliada Homes in Asheville - which is helping children succeed. On their beautiful campus is West Asheville, NC, kids learn in different programs to cope with the various challenges they are facing. For some of the programs they keep a farm, including animals such as the donkey Amus, several horses, a lot of cats, and even a llama named Llarry. A good reason to "bust our asses" and collect Pennys and Dollars on the way.

This will therefore be a great opportunity for sponsors and donors to help a fantastic cause, experiencing the fun of being in awestriking nature of the Blue Ridge Mountains while getting PR coverage through our continuous reporting and blogging. Just contact me to find out all the details about your sponsoring opportunity, how your logo can make it on our cycling jerseys, website or even the support vehicle, and of course what PR coverage your own cause can get.

As a donor you can make a difference starting at a Penny per mile - which will add up to a maximum of only 9.38 US-Dollars: 2 cyclists (Phil and me) times 469 miles (length of the Blue Ridge Parkway) times your commitment of a Penny. For your donation you will get an official, tax relevant receipt by Eliada.

For sure you can commit to more, e.g. ten cents per mile (comes to $93.80), a quarter per mile ($234.50) or a Dollar per mile ($938). The kids of Eliada will thank you! In a recent meditative visualization of mine about this project, a number popped into my head. It was 45! Meaning all donor together bring together a total of 45 Dollars per bicycled mile, which could sum up to 42,210 US-Dollars. Wouldn't it be great to hand over a cheque as big as that to the kids, animals, and staff of Eliada?