Climate Ride – Funding Goal Reached! September 30, 2011

AI is proud to have supported Jess towards meeting his personal goal in support of Climate Ride! We helped raise $130 matching $1 per every new student per class from August 15 through September 15, 2011. Below are a few words from Jess as he gears up for his 5 day, ~325 mile ride through the California redwoods.

It’s been an amazing few months for me. I’ve confirmed I’d much rather give of my own time and resources versus asking others to do the same. I feel it’s up to us individually to decide what our priorities are. And it’s through our individual lives that real change takes place. When we’re at the grocery checkout and look in our carts and decide what it is we’re purchasing, when we get up in the morning and decide how are we going to get to work today. Through all these small actions, multiplied by hundreds of decisions per day, multiplied by billions of people, add up very quickly to reach enormous impact. These organizations are here to help further research into what else can be done, and to help educate more people to those ends. I’m very happy to have been able to bring them so much support, which couldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for so many people coming together.

Now it’s time for my journey of riding from Fortuna, CA to San Francisco to begin. I’m half-way packed, and eager to go. I’m very excited to meet like-minded people and be among the beautiful California redwoods. This will be an experience I will remember for a long time to come. I hope for my insight and understanding into how the Earth needs us now more than ever is deepened. I appreciate this world and the bounty presented before us. I understand that recycling and reusing are good but are not the final answer. Just because the street is clean and free of trash, doesn’t mean it’s disappeared. It’s on the Earth somewhere, out of sight, but hopefully not out of mind. I hope to continue working on myself to be more aware of what else I can be doing.

For those interested, Climate Ride is still accepting late donations: http://climateride.donordrive.com/participant/jessmaron

Together we can do this. Help keep our Earth beautiful for the future.