So it's been a while since we sent one of these newsletters... since the days of Pepsi Refresh I do believe. As you're probably aware, we didn't wind up winning the Refresh grant though we put up a great effort, and we're thankful for all of the support you guys showed. Win or lose we still had a ton of fun with all of our videos and newsletters, and to this day Skip's video submission is one of my favorite YouTube videos of all time.
Even though we didn't win as an organization, 2009 rider and 2010 leader Sharif Morad previously won an individual grant so we still wound up in quite a few Pepsi commercials anyway.
Yeah, that was us on MTV.
Since September a lot has been going on in the world of Bike & Build. Interest in our cross country trips was so high this year that we needed to do a lottery for enrollment and still wound up with 50+ fully completed applicants on the waitlist. Leader applications were near record level, and we had all of our teams complete by the end of December. New Years saw another epic Chris Webber Memorial ride, and it was hands down the best year by all accounts from the "all-4-year" crew.
The ringing in of 2011 in Florida also symbolized a new chapter in Bike & Build, as Kristian officially stepped aside and Natalie Serlé (P2S09, SC2SC10) took over as the new program director. We thank Kristian for his years of hard work and dedication and wish him well in his new gig as Development Director at the Cool Kids Campaign.
As I write this the phone keeps ringing and folks keep coming through the office door as all of the 2011 leaders are arriving in Philadelphia tonight for this weekend's upcoming Leadership Retreat. Over the next few days they'll bond as teams and learn all about life on the road, as well as some of the finer intricacies involved in getting these trips across the country.
With that said, I did want to make sure this newsletter got out prior to this weekend starting because there are two super-huge-gigantic-important things I wanted to bring to everyone's attention. 1) Chris Webber Memorial Fellowship grant applications are now available online. 2) The Capital Ride is new and improved for 2011, and we need to find four B&B alumni leaders to help make it a success. You can read more about both of these below.
Alright, I'm out for now. I need to get down to retreat early so I can stake out the best nook for my Thermarest. You remember how it is...
Ride on!
Brendan Newman, Program Director
brendan.newman@bikeandbuild.org
Applications are now available for the next round of the Chris Webber Memorial Fellowship.
The Fellowship is a one-time award of up to $5,000, and may be used to finance an individual’s participation in a project, supplement his or her income from regular employment or volunteer efforts, or involve the individual in any other traditional or non-traditional affordable housing project.
More information about the award and process can be found here. Please note the deadline for applications is April 1st.
Applications are now online for Bike & Build's third annual Capital Ride!
In honor of what is sure to be its most successful summer ever, we've taken some time to give the Capital Ride its very own website. Fire up the ol' interwebs browser and surf that information highway right on down to CapitalRide.org for all of the latest news an announcements regarding this year's trip.
Quite a bit has changed in the way this trip is run, and now 2011 participants are able to fundraise extra and receive a B&B bike to use for the trip. Additionally, riders are able to recruit friends to lower their fundraising, and everyone is also eligible for cool B&B swag if they surpass the fundraising requirements and hit higher goals.
Finally, like I mentioned before we also need to find some leaders! If you've been looking to get your B&B fix and haven't been able to make it down to CWM - or maybe CWM just wasn't enough - I strongly encourage to consider leading the Capital Ride. Have a look at what is required of leader here. The deadline to apply is April 1st.
Join a city specific mailing list to stay up to date with B&B in your area. Connect with fellow alums and meet participants for the upcoming summer.
E-mail Natalie with suggestions for new cities.
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