Team H4
Some friends of ours at Valley Presbyterian Church have decided to do Race Across America this summer as a way to raise money for Peninsula Habitat for Humanity. RAAM, billed as “the world’s toughest bike race,” involves riding a bicycle 3,000 miles from Oceanside, CA to Annapolis, MD, in under 9 days. This team, “Holy Rollers Hammerin’ for Habitat Homes” will accomplish this feat in a relay format, with one of the four riders on the team on a bike, 24 hours a day.
For some reason, when we heard about this, our first response wasn’t “That sounds crazy” but instead “That sounds like fun,” and we decided to volunteer to crew for the team. This means that while the cyclists are riding their bikes across the country day and night, we or one of the pair of drivers in the second car will be driving behind them at around 15 mph. We’ll be providing support along the way as well, making sure the riders stay fueled and hydrated, healthy and happy.
The Reward
What, you may ask, is the point of all this? Well, VPC is having its fiftieth anniversary “Jubilee Celebration” this year, and as part of that, Pastor Mark Goodman-Morris challenged us all to do “something big.” I feel like this is a response to that call. We’re hoping to raise $50,000 to support Peninsula Habitat for Humanity. As you probably know, Habitat is a wonderful organization that builds affordable homes for deserving low-income families, “offering them a hand up, not a handout.” The money we raise will be going toward building an eight-unit family complex in Redwood City. We think this is a great cause and are proud to be supporting it.
What You Can Do
If you read about this idea and feel like you want to help us reach our goal of raising $50,000 for Peninsula Habitat, we would love to have your support. You can donate online, and if you do, please select “VPC Race Across America” under Program so we can keep track of our progress toward our goal.
You can find out what else the team is up to by keeping track on the H4 blog, which will hopefully also be updated during the race so you can keep track of our progress along the way.
And if that isn’t enough for you, and you are local, there are a couple more ways you can help us out. Our church is located on Portola Rd, which must have close to the highest density of cyclists on any given Saturday as anywhere in the country. We are having free “rest stops” for cyclists at our church on a few weekends between now and the race to raise awareness for what we are doing. If you want to help man the rest stop, you can email Mary at (her last name at stanford dot edu) and she’ll get you set up. Also, there will be a Habitat build day on the Friday May 16 which we are trying to man with all cyclists, so if you’re interested in that, send Mary an email as well.
Lastly, we’ll appreciate your prayers and positive thoughts for our team, both now and especially during the race!
Thank you for your support! With your efforts, eight deserving Bay Area families will soon have a place to call home.
