Riding for Reading Blog: http://kyvoice.com/amnews/rideread/

We are raising money for The Carnegie Center For Literacy and Learning in Lexington, KY by cycling across America. The trip follows the 1976 Bikecentennial route from Oregon to Yorktown, Virginia, spanning 10 states and over 4,000 miles. The journey begins on June 14th (Flag Day), last approximately 70 days and ends - knock on wood - with us dipping our tires in the Atlantic Ocean in August in time to head back to UK for the fall semester.

Riding for Reading is misleading: The Center promotes not only reading but general literacy and lifetime learning in Central Kentucky. As a former volunteer, I know and saw first hand how The Center's afterschool tutoring program teaches young learners the reading, writing, math and science skills they need to thrive in school and in later life. The Center ties together communities by teaching English as a Second Language and training others to do so, as well as being a general focal point of culture in the community. Our democracy and economy depend on literate, informed citizens, now more than ever. We chose The Center as our nonprofit precisely because it's wide-ranging helps give Kentuckians, young and old, the skills and motivation to help themselves.

I have seen The Carnegie Center make a difference in two students’ lives personally. One tutee – we’ll call him Billy for anonymity’s sake – began our time together as well-intentioned learner behind in his classes, frustrated by the inconsistency of English spelling and pronunciation, and saddled with the burden of a self-fulfilling belief in his own incapacity. Over the semesters at weekly meetings, we worked together to make some sense of English spelling and to win small, encouraging victories. You could almost intuit and sense the connections being made in his brain, the way that you know that under the soil’s surface roots are fanning out in all directions in the dark earth. Soon we were moving away from the safe-territory of ‘kids’ books and moving on to more ‘grown up’ and challenging books. During our last meetings, as I heard him reading aloud fluently and proudly from “Where the Red Fern Grows” I had a vision of him later reading from college textbook to himself, of him scanning a manual at a future job, of him reading “Where the Red Fern Grows” aloud to his children, his grandchildren, in a comfortable house and lifestyle difficult to imagine without literacy.

We feel blessed to have grown up reading - not only for its vital "bread on table" necessity in today's economy but for the just as vital nourishment and expansion of the soul that it provides. The desire to tackle some huge journey, to take up a quest: could this have been born without having read The Lord of the Rings or Around the World in Eighty Days or On The Road?. We feel blessed to have grown up reading and want others to have that selfsame boon.

Or consider dedicating one mile of the trip to someone special you know or someone you know in your own life who has been touched by the gift of literacy.

But no matter how you imagine or envision your donation, the fact remains that every dollar and every cent is appreciated and will help real people in the real world. If you are so kind as to donate, also consider talking with your Human Resources department at work to see if your employer would like to match your gift and further increase the impact of your contribution. Thank you for visiting our page. Donating through this website is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to support our fundraising efforts. Many thanks for your support -- and don't forget to forward this to anyone who you think might want to donate too! Simply click the link under the donation thermometer.

Finally, we hope to have a blog up and running during the trip so that you can gauge the trials and tribulations of the open road. Until then, we remain: