Thursday, Sept. 20th

We awoke this morning to the aroma of strong fire department coffee and fresh bagels, refreshed and ready for what promised to be a big day of raising awareness and funds for the Hu3F8 project. After some “primping” we were ready for the arrival of the media at Station 6. Mike Hall and Kevin Joles were there bright and early and had already concocted a plan for the arrangement of the vehicles and banners to make the best presentation for the cameras.

The media arrived right on time and began interviewing all of us asking that we describe the disease and how it has affected out families. We were impressed by their interest, but felt that we were not able to effectively communicate how important this project is and how desperately we need to get 3-5 million dollars. We are beginning to recognize that there is so much important information that needs to be relayed and it is difficult to do this in a 2-minute television piece. We are starting to actively pursue the print media so that the entire story can be told.

After the media collected all of the information that they needed, we prepared to head out to the Sprint Campus for our meeting with the employees there. As we were getting on our bikes, we noticed a parade of second graders walking down the street holding signs of support for our children and us. We spent some time talking with them and their teachers, and thanking them all for their support, thoughts, and prayers. They remained to cheer us on as we mounted our bicycles and rode off towards the Sprint Campus.

On the 12-mile ride, we were escorted through Olathe and Overland Park by two police motorcycles, a ladder truck, and a chief’s vehicle. It was an incredible experience and drew quite a bit of attention to the information on the sides of the vehicles and hopefully drove some people to the website to donate.

We arrived at the Sprint Campus and we were welcomed by a multitude of employees who cheered us on as we rode laps around the campus. They formed in small groups at each building and seemed very interested as we stopped to tell them about neuroblastoma and how it affects so many children and families. They were intrigued by the proposition of such significant improvements and voiced frustration about a lack of funding. It was emotional to see the number of people who had taken time out of their busy day to support this effort.

We departed Sprint after a couple of hours of meeting people and a lunch that was provided by Kami Brady, of Sprint’s Communications Department. We headed downtown to the Children’s Mercy Hospital – Downtown Campus. There we met three families actively in treatment for neuroblastoma. Cade and Caden were full of energy and tons of fun to play with. Their parents all were wonderful to talk to and are all remarkable advocates for their children. The families were inspirational and provided the motivation we needed to get back on the road.

We headed out in the late afternoon on the way to Columbia, MO, where we had a meeting with the media. The late afternoon start made it necessary to modify our riding plan to ensure that we arrived on time. As night fell, we experienced the most dangerous riding conditions of the trip so far. Vander had two very near misses and we met some people who, by their words and gestures, indicated that they didn’t fully support our cause. Both times that the trail vehicle was stopped by the police, the officers voiced support, but asked that we find another route. Luckily, by the time the police were involved, we were a mile or so from Jefferson City, MO. We drove up to Columbia and found a place to camp for the night in preparation for the morning’s activities. We spent a good portion of the night developing a plan for a safer route to St. Louis and finally got to bed after midnight.

As always, we miss you all terribly and we are only a week away.
Love you all, see you soon.