Photo Adventures with Ed

Sometimes a new route makes for a better journey

Elisabeth's Thank You

The annual Firefighters Trans New Hampshire Ride for Muscular Dystrophy took a different route this year. Faced with the impact of NH’s bike week being moved to the same week as the ride, the organizers were faced with a tough decision. Move the ride or move the course.

They choose to move the course. While the route was much tougher this year, and it ended in Concord instead of Portsmouth, the route was the best it has ever been.

Rides like the Trans New Hampshire MDA Ride benefit both the rider and the organization that they support when the the people become connected to the stories and people behind the ride. Connections are best made when people share something in common. Rides like this one bring people together through the spirit of support and shared pain brought on by the ardors of the ride. For the Trans New Hampshire MDA Ride the riders can choose to develop a connection with the some of the MDA families that come out for the ride.

This year I took a different route on the ride. After riding I went and interviewed some of these families to try and get a sense of what their lives were like and how rides like this one help out. I wanted to connect. We all know these families have it rough. We see their smiles and get inspired. I found that I, like most of the riders I interviewed, had very little understanding of what the families actually go through. What I learned was so powerful that I don’t feel adequate describing it to you. I will be capturing their stories over the coming weeks and months and presenting them too you on this web site and others.

This is a new route for me, and one that I think will be a better journey.

You can help me out with this years fund raising goals by donating here.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 1:37 pm. It is filed under Charity and tagged with Benefit, Bike, Charity, MDA, New Hamphsire, Ride, Trans NH MDA Ride. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.