Wish A Mile

It's the end of July and that means it is WAM time!! For those who haven't followed my blog in the past, WAM stands for Wish A Mile which is a fundraiser for the Make A Wish Foundation. It is a 300 mile bike ride from Traverse City Michigan to Chelsea Michigan. The riders bike 100 miles per day for 3 days rain or shine (and this year they reported a lot of rain). This is my dads 3rd year riding in Make A Wishes largest solo fundraiser event in the country. After 2 years of not being able to ride due to work, my bother was back in it this year for his....... gosh I don't know how many rides he has done this year?? Also on his riding team is of course my brothers FIL who has been doing this ride for years along with my brothers SIL and her husband and 15 or so other friends. For the small teams (under 20 riders) they came in 3rd place with the amount of money they raised which was over 22,000.00. This year the riders raised 1.52 million dollars!!! Way to go riders! If you are interested in seeing pictures, you can go to the first link. The following is a picture that was on the site from the first day when the riders were loading their bikes in the trucks to take them to Traverse City. My dad is in the green shirt and my brother is standing in front of him in the hat. His SIL is in the purple shirt.

This year Make A Wish granted their 6000th wish. It was to a 3 year old little girl named Amanda. Her wish was to meet the real Elmo. If you have a minute, watch the video of Amanda meeting Elmo. It will melt your heart. You can also see more pictures and read about Amanda's story.

Congrats Dad and Team!

My dad just finished his 300 mile bike ride for Make A Wish up in Michigan. How awesome is it that Cameron and I were able to see him finish all the way down here in Alabama thanks to the live feed from the Make A Wish website!! I was able to capture a screen shot of it. He's a little blurry, but that's him getting off his bike and that's my brothers FIL behind him.


This is my dads 2nd year doing the Wish A Mile. It is a 300 mile bike ride from Traverse City Michigan to Chelsea Michigan. They ride 100 miles each day for 3 days. He raised $1,723 exceeding his goal of $1,500. His team (14 riders) raised a total of $22,007 exceeding their goal of $21,550. The even of 800 rides is hoping to raise 1.6 million which will grant 200 wishes. I am not sure of the total yet, but last report was $1,554,732.67
WAY TO GO RIDERS!!!


ETA:
The local paper did a news story on them before the ride. John is my dad, Theresa is my brothers wife.

Wish A Mile

On Sunday we met my dad at the finish line in Chelsea, Mi. My brother (who wasn't able to ride this year) and SIL and their 2 kids went with us because my SIL's dad and sister also ride.

The kids made signs and were very proud of them. They wouldn't let anyone hold them for them.

They were coming in fast so I got one quick (blurry) shot off of my dad which I thought was neat because it had the finish line sign in the background.

After the ride, each team meets with the child that they raised money for and are each presented with a medal. This is my dad receiving his metal from Curtis.

After pictures we all headed to the food building to eat. The event was catered by Carabah's restaurant with some yummy food. They had loads of stuff for kids to do and lots of fun little freebies for the kids. Lots of fun for the families.

This is a picture I took of a man named Kevin as he finished the ride. I think this is his 5th ride for Make A Wish and he is amazing. I am not sure of his age, but he is disabled.He completes all 300 miles on his bike with only the use of one arm and one leg. What an inspiration! He got a huge welcome at the finish line and was also honored the night before at an awards ceremony that the bikers had at one of their stops.

Some interesting things I learned about this fund raiser. It was actually started 20 years ago by two men from my home town of Canton. They had bet each other that they could ride from Canton, Mi to Mackinaw, Mi. The decided if they were going to do it they wanted it to have a purpose and Wish A Mile was born. Their goal this year was to raise a million dollars. They succeeded that goal with $1,340, 995.00 and was able to grant 167 wishes!!! WAY TO GO RIDERS!! The oldest rider was 74 and the youngest was 12. Amazing.

And as I have said before, I am so proud of my dad and so happy for him for being able to ride all 300 miles! I know he was very nervous about this journey. 5 Years ago this would have been an impossible task for him as he weighed over 300 pounds and suffered a heart attack just a couple years before that. During the ride he carried a picture of himself at his heaviest and a picture of Curtis, the boy he was riding for. If he was struggling he had the pictures to remind him of what he had achieved and why he needed to push on. He is already looking forward to next years ride!