Sydney To Surfers Bike Ride - My 1,000 Km Charity Ride

Why I'm Riding My Pushbike 1,000 Km (621 miles) on March 24, 2007

Heh! This is old news - from 2007! Check out my latest charity bike ride here - it's bigger and I may not survive!

Updated: February 14, 2007

One of my goals for 2007 is to ride from Sydney to the Gold Coast (home). A distance of about 1,000 km (621 miles).

If you're in the US, that's the same as riding from the New York Stock Exchange to Indianapolis (in a straight line).

To do it I've joined a Charity Ride called the "Sydney To Surfers Cycle Tour".

Riding 150 km A Day For 7 Days - Sydney To Surfers

The ride starts on March 24 and goes to the 30th. I'll be riding about 150 km per day. That's me to the left during a 180 km bike ride a few years back.

The main beneficiary for the ride is Fr. Chris Riley's "Youth Off The Streets" - a widely known and respected charity here in Australia that helps homeless youth.

The ride is organised by the Rotary Club of Engadine and last year they raised the brilliant amount of $111,000. Sensational.

Why I Am Doing This - And Why "Youth Off The Streets"

I have 3 great kids. They're really nice people - a beautiful 15 yo daughter (Laura) and 2 boys - Jack (14) and Harry (12). That's them to the right with my wife Mel.

They get a heap of support from my wife and I, as well as a very supportive community of teachers, sport and Scout leaders, friends and many more.

And because of all that support they get the chance to learn vital life skills, gain a solid education and have a caring environment where they can grow as people with us (family, friends and leaders) to help them when they stumble.

Not everybody has that. And that can make life tough. Very tough.

Children Struggle To Gain Life Skills Without Support

I've seen a ton of children over the years struggle because they lack strong role models. In this day and age where something like 50% of kids grown up in a single parent family the incidence of kids not being able to deal with life's issues has grown enormously.

Research indicates very strongly that the absence of a strong role model in a child's life very negativity impacts upon them. In a FLY Study, of the 13,000 kids cited for a juvenile offence surveyed:

• 91% do not have positive adult role models in their lives,
• 83% do not have basic life skills to resist peer pressure and make healthy choices, and
• 78% have experimented with marijuana.

Support, Education & Living Skills

A lot of the time the only thing these kids need is a chance. An opportunity like the one that Father Riley's organisation provides - support, education and the opportunity to learn some living skills.

So if I can play a small role in that by being one of the 100 or so doing this ride, and raise some much needed funds to help others, then that's a pretty easy thing for me to do.

Although I will end up with a sore behind from sitting on the bike for that long!

How You Can Help - Sponsor Me

Okay, here's how you can help if you'd like to sponsor me on this rather long ride. Simply hit this button:

and follow through. You can pay with a PayPal account (if you have one), or a credit card. I'll send a receipt for every donation received (along with my thanks!).

It only takes a second to do and is 100% secure. I'd be thrilled with whatever amount you would like to give.

It's as easy as that to help me along and raise such much needed funds for a worthwhile charity. My goal is to raise just $30 per day until March 23, 2007.

Hope you can help!

Here's who has helped so far

Thanks a bunch to those who have helped so far:

• Scott Francis of A Clear Direction - Brisbane Financial Planners - donated $25 US.
• Dave Starr - GPS Tracking site - donated $25 US.
• Mark Bridgeman - a London PHP Developer - donated $30 US.
• Matt Eve - Matt has a Marketing and Business Growth consultancy in Ireland - donated $25 US.
• Joel Williams - from Life Goggles - donated $25 US.
• Jamie Harrop - Video Blogging in 2007 - donated $30 US.
• Fraser Edwards - who has an excellent Affiliate Marketing Blog - donated $30 US
• Tom Walker - who has an excellent web design and web marketing firm in Victoria BC. Donated $20 CAD.
• Eric Barnes who has developed PHP Classifieds Software - donated $25 US.
• The beautiful, gorgeous and wonderful Chelsea McLean - Gold Coast Public Retails firm - donated $30 US.
• Our client David Williams of Hammer Nutrition - endurance food products - is sponsoring me with products and advice.
• Seamus Clarke, who runs a web design business in Belfast - donated $40 US.
• Joanne Kershaw and Chris Van Hoof - friends of mine - donated $200 US.
• Jack Sinclair - my 14 year old son donated the prize money he received when he won an Australian citizenship award - donated $250 AUD.
• Paul Warburton, owner of paulwarburton.com, for simple, cost effective website designs - donated $25 US.
• Tracey and the great guys at Surfside Pools have donated $100. Thanks Tracey!
• Mark Harbottle, Matt Mickiewicz and the wonderful SitePoint team (publishers of my Web Design Business Kit) have kindly donated $500.
• Dave Davis' online marketing Ireland team have have kindly donated $30 US.
• An old client - he's been with us for years....he's only young! - Andrew Mills, has been kind enough to donate a whopping $500. ABC Brick Sales and ABC Heli - Gold Coast helicopter charters and tours - are two of his businesses. Thanks Andrew!
• Chris Fogarty, from here on the Tweed Coast, has donated $100. Thanks Chris.
• Tom Cahalan from Suffolk web designers Coding Monkeys has donated $100 US. Thanks a bunch Tom.
• Logan Thompson from a Portland, Oregon Web Design firm has donated $50 US. Thanks a heap Logan.
• Keith Burnett of Marketing Fat Farm has donated $30 US. Thanks Keith. Check out Keith's marketing blog for some interesting info.
• Luca Magnani, developer of the Bookmark Converter program and owner of a Rimini Web Agency has very kindly donated $33 US to the ride charity. Thanks Luca.
• Ross Hill has a website design business in Geelong and kindly donated $20 US to the ride charity. Thanks Ross.
• David Priest from Brisbane here in Australia donated $100 US and asked me to mention Macsim Fastening Systems instead of linking to him - he was very impressed that Fraser donated the car for the fundraising. Thanks a bunch David.
• Bruno Lenette was another kind person who donated $20 US and said he didn't need public thanks - but thanks anwyay Bruno.
• The Fuglies founder Anthony Dever was another kind donor of $30 US - thanks Anthony. Anthony has just started up Blogs - a way to search Australian blogs.
• Oz Web FX master (Richard) has snuck in late with a great $50 US donation - Richard has just launched a new sited called isellim - get more info here.

Have a good day.

Brendon Sinclair