Pedal for Peace 2008

Frequently Asked Questions

People have so many questions about the coming bike ride so we’ve made this page to best answer them! Any other questions? E-mail us at: <rpatch@pedalforpeace2008.org>

Q: What is your route?

A: We are starting in San Diego, California and riding to Boston, Massachusetts. This takes us on a diagonal line across the United States. The States we are crossing through are: California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Canada, Vermont, and Massachusetts. For a detailed map and information of our route, please visit this page.

Q: How many miles is the bike ride?

A: 4,600 miles or 7,400 kilometers

Q: How long are you expecting this journey to take?

A: We have allocated 65 days for riding. Peter has a deadline where his job starts August 22, so we need to arrive on the East Coast by that date.

Q: How many miles a day are you two expecting to ride?

A: We need to average 500 miles a week, or 70+ miles a day, to make it back to the East Coast on August 20th.

Q: Do you two have a support vehicle?

A: Nope. We are doing this as a self-supported crossing where we carry all of our gear on our bicycles. We both have front and rear bike racks with panniers.

Q: Where will you be staying?

A: We are bringing a tent, so we will be camping on the side of the road wherever possible, a campground if it’s along the route and cheap, and a hotel once every 1000 miles and on Peter’s birthday!

Q: Do you want to spend the night at our place?

A: Yes, please! If you’re along our route, send us an e-mail–we’d love to spend a night indoors!

Q: What kind of bikes will you be riding?

A: Peter is riding an aluminum Trek 1200 series bicycle, and I’m riding a steel LeMond Tourmalet. Both bikes are “road” bikes, with skinny tires, and front and rear bicycle racks and panniers–pictures are coming soon!

Q: Why are you riding across the country?

A: One afternoon while Pete and I were lifeguarding at Paint Rock Pool he shouted across the pool to me “hey Patchy… you want to ride across the country when you graduate from college?!” Since that day, it’s been 22 months of an ever-evolving process which has transformed into a broader and deeper reason for riding across the country: raising funds for microcredit in Nicaragua and creating global interconnections.

Q: How did you initially come up with the fund raising idea? What inspired you to take this approach to fundraising?

A: Peter and I promised each other that we would ride across the country when I graduate from college 22 months ago. Since that time, I have spent six months in Nicaragua where I learned about the power of microcredit to empower the lives of individuals living in crippling poverty throughout the country. I won a Project for Peace grant through Wheaton and worked with microcredit in Nicaragua where I learned about the life-transforming impact the $5,000 from my grant had on the 28 individuals who received some of the loan monies. I wanted to find a way to bring the reach and effectiveness of microcredit to more individuals throughout Nicaragua and using our bike trip as a vehicle to spread that message became readily apparent.

By bringing stories to people on a personal level, individuals can identify with the hardships of another person and realize that their donation directly empowers others to take advantage of a new opportunity afforded through a microcredit loan. We hope that this method of fundraising will raise significant capital as well as global awareness by helping individuals share stories and understanding about life in Nicaragua.

Q: What is the goal of this bike trip?

A: We’re hoping to raise $50,000 to finance new microcredit banks throughout Nicaragua with our Pedal for Peace project. By traveling across the Untied States, we are hoping to share our message on a personal level with the people we meet throughout the course of our journey. By sharing our stories with the people we meet and helping them realize a way to affect the crippling poverty which touches the lives of 80% of the population of Nicaragua, people’s donations to FINCA through our project will help alleviate this poverty and raise global awareness about poverty in Nicaragua and an individuals’ ability to help empower others throughout the globe through microcredit.

Q:What it is about your microcredit project that hooked you so that you want to do even more?

A: Microcredit is so much more than credit. A microcredit loan enables a new borrower to achieve a new way of life on their own terms. So many of the people I met during my work with FINCA told me that the biggest obstacle in their lives was their lack of access to credit. Through the microcredit loans with FINCA, new clients receive not only the capital necessary to invest in their microenterprise, but they also receive a life insurance policy, participation in a savings program, and are part of a community of solidarity through the Village Banking system of microcredit where a group of borrowers share in this process together.

Enabling more individuals the opportunity to choose a loan with FINCA Nicaragua is what I feel I can do to expand my role as bridge builder between individuals who want credit and capital and those able to provide it. I want to help expand microcredit services through FINCA Nicaragua so more individuals can share in the beneficial effect microcredit can have in their lives as expressed by Norma Estela Pavon Gonzalez, of Nueva Guinea, Nicaragua who explained to me how her microloan transformed her life: “We were all really and excited for this loan at the beginning. This loan has permitted us to buy more, sell more, and grow more. This loan truly is an aid that has helped all of us.”