One more sleep

A note from one of my colleague's when I came to work today!

It's been a hectic summer, and August especially flew by. I'd like to take this chance to thank EVERYONE (all 55+ of you!) for their generous donations and support. Thanks to all of you who sponsored my in honour of my birthday in August as well! My goal was $3,500 and I'm now sitting just over $4,000!!! Amazing!

A quick update to tell you all how you can follow the team and I across Vietnam as we visit CARE projects, cycle from town to town and experience the culture of Vietnam:

www.twitter.com/311laura
www.twitter.com/CARE_CAN
(you do not need an account with twitter to see updates!)
http://carecanada.wordpress.com

(I will try to blog here - but no promises!)

Wish us luck as we Cycle for CARE!

Birthday Challenge!

I'll catch you up on my training and such shortly... but first I'd like to invite you all to participate in my super-fantastic-do-good-charity-birthday-challenge (working title)!

Today is August 1st. That means about a month and a half to go until I join a team of nine Canadians from across Canada to cycle approximately 400 km from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi inVietnam to raise money for CARE Canada.

It also means 12 more sleeps until my birthday :)

I was hoping, if you haven't had the chance already, that you'd help me get to 75% of my goal for my birthday? I'm at 60% now - thanks to all the generous people who've donated so far! - so it's not much further to get to 75%!

Just think how awesome it would be to celebrate my birthday knowing I'm so close to my end goal -- and why not make my birthday something to benefit others? CARE works in 82 countries around the world in the poorest areas helping to lift communities out of poverty. A wonderful example of their work is the current crisis in the Horn of Africa - where CARE is not only providing emergency relief from the drought and famine, but also has been distributing food and water among other programs within Dadaab for more than 20 years - the world's largest refugee camp - which is serving the thousands of new arrivals every day because of the current famine.

Just last week with the help of UNICEF they were able to open water stations along the route being used by refugees fleeing the famine in southern Somalia to get to Dadaab - often more than 100 km away where they walk for days with their children and often just the clothes on their backs.

For more on CARE's work in the Horn of Africa I highly recommend this blog interview to better understand the situation.

See? How can you not want to help out now? It's my birthday - and more importantly - people around the world could use our help!

Here's the link to make a secure donation online by credit card or paypal.

And if you'd rather do a cheque or cash to me please email me to make arrangements!

Perhaps I can guilt you into wanting to donate to this wonderful cause for my birthday by inducing some pity?

With the exception of a casual ride along the canal with my neighbour, I've been training by myself. I've been enjoying the great bike paths and using it as a chance to get to explore the city more. I've been using MapMyRide to plan routes, map out distances, and see my pace. Our travel company, Gap Adventures, had said to aim for 20 - 30 km/hr as a good pace depending on the terrain we'll be on. Every time I went for a ride and felt I was going at a good pace without wearing out my legs I'd come home to calculate and find I'd only gone closer to 15-20 km/hr.

Laura A., another Ottawa biker signed up for the Vietnam ride, helped me figure out why.

My bike sucks.

After weeks of trying to get together to ride together Laura was able to come out to meet me in my neck of the woods so we could go out and ride the Osgoode Pathway. We had to bike down some (not so nice) roads out to Leitrim Rd. to the beginning of the pathway. Before long Laura had pulled so far ahead of me I could barely see her in the distance (as I avoided the crumbling side of Albion Rd and the 80 km/hr+ cars zipping past me! We're not taking that route again!) When I finally caught up to her (at a traffic light!) I was panting and out of breath and she had just been gliding along! She noticed I looked shorter on my bike than when we had left... and so it was.

My bike post had slid a good inch down. I think my bike is actually not a good fit to begin with (thank you helpful salesperson at cheap bike store years ago!) and now my legs were not extending fully when pedalling - making it harder on my thighs - and not so good for keeping up. After adjusting gears but realizing I couldn't tighten my seat we decided a leisurely ride was best. We ended up turning around 5 km short of Osgoode. If we had a map with us and had known that we would have kept going. Oh well - will have to do it again sometime and hit up the big hopping town of Osgoode then! It ended up being a good ride and Laura and I had a chance to chat lots about the trip etc... but it certainly was eye opening as to why I wasn't able to do better (and why my thighs were killing me!) - kinda nice to know it wasn't me. Or at least - not all me. Maybe I'm not in as bad shape as I thought!

Theo suggested I get this bike.It would definitely be lighter than my big ol' bike! What do you think?  Too flashy?  Hmmm... maybe I'll just concentrate on my fundraising. Besides, knowing my luck I wouldn't be able to get one of only 50 limited editions. I'm sure they're in high demand. ;)

After trying other's bikes out and not having much luck, I took my bike out again today. Theo had to work today, he works in Gatineau, so I took the O-train down to Bayview and biked the Ottawa River pathway and crossed the Champlain bridge and along the Voyageurs pathway until I got to his work across the Chaudiere Bridge. I got there before lunch and so I enjoyed the beautiful day by the water in a park across from his work and read until it was time to go meet him for lunch. After eating we wandered down the path to an area where there were ducks and just hung out for a bit.After lunch I biked back around to the O-train station and headed home. All in all it was a pretty great way to spend the holiday Monday!

The cool statues out by the Chaudiere Rapids 

Cool art installation on the QC side by Terrace de la Chaudiere.

If I bring this much stuff for an hour's ride and some time in the park - I'm going to be in trouble when it comes time to pack for Vietnam!

Training is going to have to be solo for the rest of it, as my measly bike won't allow me to keep up with anyone. I'm hoping it will just make me tougher for all of it -- and maybe have killer thighs by the time I leave? :) Hopefully when I get to Vietnam and get to hop on a fairly new hybrid I'll be flying along with the others!

So, you've got many reasons to help me out. My birthday. An amazing cause. And pity.

Thank you all for the amazing encouragement and support. Not only am I confident that I'll reach my $3500 goal before I leave mid-September, I'm confident I'll be thinking of everyone who helped me get across Vietnam for such a worthy cause.

Donate here! Thanks! :)

My cycle adventure featured on Local Tourist Ottawa blog!

After recently tweeting about loving getting to explore the city by bike, I was approached by Local Tourist Ottawa to write a blog post for them about my ride. They posted my blog today (and with a link to my fundraising page - how nice!) so please take a read:

Cycling in Ottawa: Laura Nicol trains for her longest bike ride yet

A vacation like no other

One of the taglines for this trip is "A vacation like no other". Part of the reason is because we are fundraising for CARE Canada's work in Vietnam and around the world in the 81 other countries where it works. We will be going to visit projects to see examples of the type of work CARE does and get to meet some of the people they are working with to help them out of poverty.


Many of you have already donated, and hopefully more of you will, and so I thought I should share some more about where your money is going and the great work you're supporting.

The wonderful Jason Sangster took this picture :)

Founded in 1945, CARE is a leading international humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE works in 82 countries around the world. Last year, nearly 11,300 staff helped 87 million people. 97 percent of CARE staff are citizens of the country they work in.


CARE works with the poorest communities to:

• Improve basic health and education
• Increase access to clean water and sanitation
• Expand economic opportunity
• Help vulnerable people adapt to climate change

CARE’s mission is to serve individuals and families in the poorest communities in the world. They give communities the tools and technical assistance they need to help themselves because the goal is to empower communities to achieve long-term, sustainable solutions.


CARE also ensures that 87% of every dollar raised goes directly to support program activities. The rest covers administration and fundraising costs.


Part of our fundraising is going specifically to support the programs in Vietnam. CARE has worked in Vietnam since 1989 and has implemented over 150 projects in 23 provinces in collaboration with local partners. CARE currently employs 130 local staff.  


CARE’s programming in Vietnam includes:

• Adaptation to climate change
• Enabling access to clean water
• Emergency response
• HIV and AIDS prevention, care and support
• Sexual and reproductive health education

Here's a participant from CARE Australia's similar tour last year's talking about getting to visit projects.

I'm really looking forward to fundraising more for this great cause, and getting to see first hand the difference we're all helping to make! Thanks to everyone who's helped me towards my goal so far. 

Don't be shy - if you haven't had a chance yet to support my $3500 goal - please visit my fundraising page and donate! Donations over $10 are tax receiptable and every little bit counts! 

Fundraising update

It's been a crazy couple of weeks since my last update. The week following the long weekend I was off - running errands, meeting friends for coffee, and preping for my first big fundraiser as well. In case you missed it - I had a garage sale at the crazy tradition that is the Great Glebe Garage Sale.

All good fundraisers start with food:

This pan is meant to make multiple lasagnas, but it comes in handy for mini banana breads too!

Homemade two bite brownies!

So many generous people donated items for me to sell at the garage sale. Thank you to Stephanie, Bruna, Caroline, Kathy, Sarah, Jana, Rose, Mom and Dad, Jen, Jerome, and anyone else I missed! A huge thank you to Delaney and Nancy for lending me their front lawn/laneway to have the sale.Thank you to Theo for putting up with our guest room being piled with the items for a week or so leading up to the sale. Also a huge thank you to my mom and dad who at the last minute lent me their mini van when I realized I had way too much stuff to put into my little Mazda 3! 

Can anyone spot the foot spa?

I brought comfy lawn chairs for us to sit in (see crammed in by sliding door) but we never sat once from 7 a.m. - 4 p.m.! I had to resist the urge to sell them to the highest bidder as many people inquired about them - but I knew Theo would be mad if I sold off our comfy chairs!

My partner in crime was none other than the amazing baker and seller extraordinaire - Caroline - who baked at least 50 amazing cupcakes which sold quickly! She stuck with me the whole day and we made a game out of specifically trying to sell certain items. 

Our set up:

Good use of all available surafaces!

We tried to move things around as items sold to give good visibility. We had a lot of stuff!

   Delaney also took some great pics:

Caroline's yummy cupcakes and the two bite brownies.

Yum!

These were a huge hit with kids simply because of the colour of the icing. They didn't even care that there were berries inside.

Hungry?

Even at 8 a.m. people were buying and eating the treats!

I also sold a bunch of necklaces that I made.

Marie-Helene bought this one with a matching bracelet. I'm also going to make her matching earings so she has a whole set!

Wendy got this great one with the matching earings! I was going to keep it if no one bought it. (Apologies for my not so great photos. Note to self - get some picture taking lessons before leaving for Vietnam!)

So, after more than eight hours we decided to finally pack it in. Caroline did a quick count and this was my reaction:

Bug-eyed and smiling.

You see... because this is what we got from that one day:

$630.33!

I had some things that didn't sell, so I brought them to Aline's garage sale the following weekend at her church and made some more money for the fundraiser. Aline got her church to donate some more books to me and as I write this they're set up in the kitchen at my work where hopefully I can manage to make a few more bucks with the tail end of the donated items.

Thanks again to everyone who helped make this such a huge success - from donating items, encouraging me, stopping by at the sale to buy things or just say hi, and all those who are making the fundraising part of this extraordinary journey so powerful.

Caroline and I in our matching CARE I Am Powerful t-shirts.

Fundraiser!

A big part of this adventure challenge is the fundraising for CARE. It's an amazing cause - helping people fight poverty in Vietnam and around the world in the more than 80 countries where CARE works. But how am I going to raise $3500? 

Well, for this big an amount it does take a bit of strategy and a lot of brainstorming. Luckily for me, part of my job is to help people hold fundraisers - and CARE is full of ideas for their participants - but I also have many great colleagues and friends to help rattle ideas off with.

Caroline and Christina have been incredible with helping me with  ideas and execution so far...but I don't want to give away too much yet so I'll just tell you what I have planned for next week.

That's right! My friend and Glebe-ite Delaney will be lending me his front lawn area to hold a garage sale as part of the annual Great Glebe Garage Sale! But not just any garage sale -- because you know me -- it's a bake and garage sale!*

*please note there will not be any garages for sale. And I don't have most of the items in that picture either so please don't come expecting to buy my golf clubs.

It takes place, rain or shine, on Saturday, May 28th. All proceeds will be going to my fundraiser - so comon' out and buy an item or some baked goodies! Get in touch and I'll let you know where I'll be located (I don't want to give away poor Delaney's address on the whole world wide web!). Caroline will be helping me out as well as baking some of her famous goodies for the sale too - so you know it's going to be great!

Can't make it? Maybe you've got some small items to donate to my sale? I can take anything that will fit in my little Mazda 3 (read: no couches or coffee tables). Please leave a comment or get in touch with me on Facebook if you've got items you'd like to donate to my sale. It's a great way to get ride of one's person's junk (which is another person's treasure!), do some spring cleaning and support a great cause all at the same time!

As a treat - some tips in case you're thinking of navigating The Great Glebe Garage Sale:

From: 

http://davidscrimshaw.blogspot.com/2008/05/garage-sale-my-schema.html

The Big Travel Announcement!

So in case you haven't heard yet -- in four months I'm going to Vietnam!

Not only am I going to Vietnam, I'm going to cycle across it -- and all in the name of CARE Canada!

That's right - along with a team of Canadians I'll be cycling from Ho Chi Minh City in the South to Hanoi in the North from September 18th - 30th.

I'll be raising $3500 for CARE Canada's programming in more than 80 countries around the world where CARE works to help defend dignity and fight poverty. CARE places a special focus Before we begin our adventure we'll be visiting CARE projects near the border of Cambodia to have a first hand look at CARE's work and the types of people we're helping. To see more about what CARE does specifically in Vietnam check this out.

Those who know me well may say - really? Laura is going to bike across a foreign country? That doesn't sound like anything she's ever done before! -- and you'd be correct! But that's part of what makes this even more exciting - practically every aspect will be a new experience for me!

• I've never travelled with a group of strangers before (though I am getting to know a bunch of them before we go through these lovely things we call social media!)
• I've never travelled this far away, or across this many time zones! (Any tips on jet lag please send 'em my way!)
• I've never biked or done any athletic thing to this extent (hey comon' - doing a 30-day hot yoga challenge has got to count for something though right?)
• I've never been somewhere that didn't speak predominently English or French (I'm practicing my Vietnamese as we speak)
• I've never been away from home/family/my dog for more than a week! (Though I'm sure Theo and Maya will appreciate the break ;) )

Suffice it to say - this will be very exciting. If you'd like to take part in this journey with me - there's still space -but not a lot of time! Deadlines are fast approaching!

So, stay tuned as I update you on my training, my fundraising events and goal, and other news as I count down the days to this great adventure!