Pedals for Hope 2009

I'm not super fond of school assemblies; I figure they are really meant for the kids. Let me clarify: I am the kind of person who gets teary-eyed when I see kids singing or reciting the things they've learned (I get that from my dad), but other school assemblies don't do much for me. But Friday morning I attended the best school assembly ever: the 2009 Pedals for Hope Celebration.

Entheos Academy (my kids' school—yea!) just finished their Pedals for Hope fundraiser this year. Last year only the sixth grade participated in this bike tour, raising $5,411.56 for cancer research at the Huntsman Institute. This year the entire middle school (7th through 9th grades) took part in the bike tour. The kids were determined to raise more this year than last, and set a goal to earn $9500. Miss Millar said she had to bite her tongue when she heard that goal; it seemed way too high. [pardon the fuzzy pics; I was at the back of the room with only my phone camera . :-( above: the bike heroes on stage]

The kids learned about bikes, riding and maintenance, and had to practice riding at home for several weeks to log in exercise hours before the bike tour. They also contacted businesses to sponsor them and make donations, as well as asking family and friends for donations.

The bike tour was divided into four phases: On Monday a group biked ten miles; Tuesday's group did 20 miles; on Wednesday, 30 miles. That same week ten students had gone to Washington DC; they arrived home Wednesday night and on Thursday nine of those kids rode ten miles, giving a double meaning to their name, The DC Ten. The last group to ride, the Thursday group, rode 40 miles (one of the DC Ten actually went on the 40-mile ride). This year Lindsey rode with the 20-mile group and Jason rode with the 4-T group, or "The Team That Triumphs!" The 40-milers. Each day when the riders arrived back to school the entire school was out on the school grounds to greet them, and high-five them.

The entire school was at the assembly on Friday to find out how much money they actually raised, and to cheer for the bike-riding heroes. And boy, did they cheer! Any highschool would be green with envy over the Entheos school spirit.

Entheos students made pins and gave them
to guests who attended the assembly

But although the bike-ride comprised the biggest part of the fundraiser, there was more. The entire school participated in a Penny War, competing to see which grade could bring in the most change to add to the cancer funds. This year the Kindergarten won by a landslide: one set of grandparents had been collecting change for 31 years, and when they heard of the Penny Wars for cancer research they thought that it was a very worthy cause to donate their "loose change" to. The total brought in from the Penny Wars was $817.28 (two five-gallon jugs full of change). Of that, the Kindergarten alone brought in $400 worth of pennies. When they announced that, you should have heard the students!

Last year a few girls cut their long hair, donating it to Locks of Love. One young man, Zandon, thought that Locks of Love was such a cool idea that he grew his hair out for an entire year just so he could donate it this year.

He and five other volunteers had their hair cut at the assembly so they could make their personal donations for cancer patients. Each time a ponytail was cut off and held up to view the kids burst out cheering. Two more boys, Jonathon and Donovan, said that if the school reached their $9500 goal they would shave their heads. They were also on the stage last Friday, losing their hair to shouts of, "Jon-a-thon!" and "Don-o-van!" [photo: Locks of Love]

But the culminating event was the unveiling of the grand total that the kids had raised, something that was kept secret from the student body until the Friday Celebration. The students stomped out a "drum roll" while two of the teachers, Miss Millar and Miss Amy, unrolled a giant roll of paper with the grand total printed on it. It opened up from back to front, and as the students got to see the number growing and growing, the cheering increased and increased. When we saw the total of $10,001.54 the room exploded in deafening shrieks and whistles, cheers and applause.

The students presented a giant check to a representative from the Huntsman Institute, who told them that their money would go to research that would not only help their own friends and neighbors, and people from Utah, but people all over the world. [photo: a big check]

It was a great assembly, celebrating a great event. Those kids keep raising the bar. What will their goal be for next year?

Pedals for Hope 2009