As some of you may remember, last year, the Phoenix Bikes "Raise + Ride" event fell on my birthday weekend. I set a goal to raise $3,800 and pedal 38 miles in honor of my 38th birthday. My team blew it away and raised nearly $4,500! It made my 38-year-old-self want to cry a little.
The ride that day ended up being a little over 40 miles, my longest ever. This year, I want to raise the (handle)bar. See what I did there? I haven't been riding enough to do a full 100-mile century in one day, but I want to ride 100 miles over the weekend. Can I do it. I'm not really sure, but it sure would make for a good story if I die trying. :) To add some extra excitement to this goal, I've roped James (my husband) into doing the Virginia Capital Trail out and back with me. That means we'll drive to Richmond, bike Saturday the 52 mile trail to Jamestown/Williamsburg, sleep there, and then bike another 52 miles back on Sunday. On the fundraising side, I've set a personal goal of $4000 and a team goal of $5,000 because--again--we're raising the bar from last year!
Thank you in advance for your support. You all know that I absolutely love the work we do here at Phoenix Bikes. It makes my heart so happy to see teens and tweens in our shop learning bike mechanics and a whole bunch of social and life skills along the way, earning their own bike to keep, and then getting out riding, racing and exploring!
Phoenix Bikes Raise + Ride: Sizzling Summer Century
Phoenix Bikes is back again this year with another exciting Raise + Ride event, this year sponsored by our generous friends at Amazon! The Sizzling Summer Century ride is designed to get you and your team active and raise money for a great cause! With this event we're giving you the opportunity to stretch your creative skills and make your own routes, whether that's sticking with the 100 mile century on the Washington and Old Dominion Trail--our typical route--or transforming your neighborhood trails into a race course. To spice things up, we'll also be giving out amazing prizes for acheivements like most money raised, highest number of donors and team members, and more!
This summer ride is also a peer-to-peer fundraiser for Phoenix Bikes, and we encourage you to reach out to your friends and family to help fundraise. Last year we blew our goal of $25,000 out of the water by raising $75,000, making it the most successful fundraising event that Phoenix Bikes has ever had! We're looking to soar to last year's astronomical heights again by setting our fundraising goal at $75,000, with the hopes of continuing and ideally exceeding the incredible efforts of 2020! We can't wait to get started!
The mission of Phoenix Bikes is harnessing the power of bikes to help youth build passion, purpose, and a place in the community. We are an Arlington nonprofit that uniquely combines youth educational programs with a full-service professional bike shop and retail store. Since our launch, we have had the opportunity to engage thousands of teens, with over 900 earning their own bikes so far. Local youth, ages 12 to 17, are invited to participate in bike refurbishment and retail operations as they contribute to the daily operations of the Phoenix Bikes shop located in South Arlington, VA. Through these experiences, our students are not only given the opportunity to learn technical mechanical skills and put in hard work, but also develop their problem solving abilities and gain self confidence.