Biking 'Miles for Meals'

Summer and the season of biking have begun, along with our new Miles for Meals fundraiser. I am so happy to put my love of biking into action and ride 3,000 miles for the Open Hands Midway meal programs. I am over 1/3 of the way to the goal as I just reached 1,200 miles recently. You can be a part of this event by donating financially AND by riding your bike as well. I was hoping that more people would have come forward to say they want to bike too but alas just one person has done so. I want to challenge you if you are a bicyclist to put those miles towards a good cause. Use the donation form on our website to get involved. While we have met our original goal (insert your applause or whoop it up here), we now have a NEW goal to raise an additional $2,500.00 that will be matched by an anonymous donor. It is my hope that many who read this will be inspired to support our work with a gift to help us reach that goal. Shameless plug, you can give more than once, just sayin'...

Which leads me to share with you a bike vacation I had just a few weeks ago. I was off work for a total of 11 days and I biked a total of 434 miles during that time. I spent time on the the Hardwood Creek trail, the Sunrise Prairie trail, the Root River State trail, the Douglas State trail, the Cannon Valley trail, the Sam Morgan trail, the Nine Mile Creek trail, the Gateway State trail, the Brown's Creek trail, the Minnehaha Creek trail, around the Minneapolis chain of lakes trails as well as countless other trails and bikeways. Of those 11 days there was only one day that it rained and I did not bike. I believe my favorite was the Root River trail, so peaceful, so tranquil, so beautiful, so amazing. If I could ride this trail every day I would, just sayin'...

On the last day of my bike vacation, and yes, I waited until the end, I indeed fell off my bike. I was between Hudson, WI and Bayport, MN. I had another 25 miles of biking too do, including crossing the St. Croix River into Houlton, WI. So you are asking, what happened to me? First, I have to say it was a hard slam onto the asphalt pavement. I had momentum coming down a hill, turned to an adjoining road and in the blink of an eye I was on the ground. I hit my shoulder first, then my left knee. No, I did not cry, why bother, but I screamed loudly, 'OUCH, that hurt!', of course nobody stopped. Had I been on a bike trail they would have, bikers have a way of caring for one another. Anyway, I sat up, rubbed my shoulder and then I looked down at my knee which was now bleeding, full of sand and dirt and a real mess. At this point I knew I had another 25 miles of riding to go so I picked myself up and off I went. I encountered a very nice couple while crossing the bridge to Houlton. They noticed my knee and we had a nice conversation about biking. I told them I would be ok, after all, I still had more riding to do so off I went. When I arrived home I had to spend a fair amount of time running water over my knee to get the now crusty blood loosened up in order to then dump peroxide on it to begin the clean up process. It has now been 2 weeks, I do have some beautiful scabs on my left knee, colored bruises on my shoulder and my right knee but no stopping this bicyclist, what's a little fall, just sayin'...

Anyway, back to Open Hands Midway. Much is happening here in the coming months. The July Summer Challenge is coming soon, Produce Distribution in late August and early September, Give to the Max day in November and we will end the year with our 3rd Annual Community Night of Light, Feeding our Neighbors in Need tree lighting on December 5. We continue to see an increase in the number of guests we are serving at our meal and food programs. The most recent tally through May 31 shows we have served 7,689 meals! Clearly the need for our programs is important. Another important thing is that we are always looking for more volunteers and if you are someone who has availability during the day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, please click this link to learn more OR contact me at kay@openhandsmidway.org or call me at 651-646-6549 x4 with any questions you may have, just sayin'...