Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Admiring Fortitude

One of the barristas at my Starbucks is on a cross-country bike tour. Sam Malaska and his friend, Scott Finamore, left Youngstown on May 9 en route to San Francisco. Their goal is to raise $15,000 for Akron Children's Hospital Mahoning Valley.

I like to walk and hike. I've been on ten-mile hikes before. I fantasize about taking a walking tour, B&B to B&B, in the Lake Country of England or the southwest coast of South Africa. I ponder a barge cruise through France, disembarking at one lock and riding a bike along the canal to the next lock. But biking 3,000 miles? Through rain and wind and dust and cold? Across mountains? That isn't even something I could have done when I was these boys' ages. Now? At my age? Some mornings I have a hard time walking from the car to the office after my 60-mile commute.

I admire these young men for wanting to make a difference for sick kids, and for dreaming of a way they could make it happen. Read their online journal and the Vindicator article. I think you, also, will be filled with admiration for their act of setting a very difficult goal and then striving to achieve it.

You can contribute to their effort here. You can follow them on Twitter.

Life is for living, and these boys are living it to the fullest!

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