Week #2 by the numbers
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We have arrived safely in Sonora after a good, windy, hard day of riding.
With 54 miles under or belts today, that brings this week’s total to 281 miles and the Tour total to 616 miles. We have climbed 31,863 feet in total and raised $34,489 for the 10 organizations up and down the valley.
Troy Harvey has done a remarkable job documenting our trip and if you have not seen his work, please visit his blog.
People said very nice things about the Tour and our efforts at dinner tonight. I remarked as my hosts dropped me off for rest, that it is sad that we have to ride so many miles to get the attention that we have for this human rights violation in our communities. That to get the media’s attention and our community’s attention and our society’s attention we have to do something with this level of dedication and focus (and we enjoy the riding) but it is still an effort.
At the end of the day, it is the survivor’s Tour, the survivor’s story, the story of the most vulnerable in our communities. Those are the important people, the survivors and the not yet survivors. We can turn this tide of one of the fastest growing crimes in the world if we work together, partner, cooperate, listen, advocate, listen some more, collaborate and focus on the important things.
Riding together as a strong pace line we were able to survive the headwind and travel as safely as possible on a very busy road. We need to start capturing that spirit in our work in the world. When many of us are ‘pulling’ in the same direction the load is quite light, the effort is easy because we are in concert and focused. The problem is larger than we are, the problem can not be solved by one person alone, the problem can be overwhelming at times.
So, let’s focus on mile 3 together. We have screened the film around the valley and beyond, mile marker 1. We are 2/3rds of the way through the Tour and on schedule to raise $50,000 for local organizations to combat human trafficking and support the survivors, mile marker 2. What does the next mile look like? What might it look like with twice the number of people focused on this crime and knowing what to do and law enforcement and the legal system and human service providers and non-profits collaborating together? How many miles do we have to go? Does it matter? Fall in with our pace line, take a pull at the front and then let your neighbor take a turn. Together we can work to make our world a better place, strengthen our community and hopefully prevent more people from being exploited. That is a goal worth working together to achieve.
Peace.