Bike-a-thon Fundraiser

One of the ways I am going to raise money to buy the 42 bicycles for the children at the Machao Orphanage is to set up a Bike-a-thon. After talking with the director of the Orphanage, Carolyn Rowley, we have decide to set the Bike-a-thon on May 4. Setting up a Bike-a-thon is a difficult process, so I have contacted a young man, Jaime, at Crank LA Clothing Store. Him and his friends have organized many bike-a-thons and other various biking events. They have also offered to create a unique Bikes 4 Orphanages logo and redesign my flyers and posters with the help of their talented graphic design team. With their help, the bike-a-thon will be something amazing we can all look forward too. I don't have specific details on the bike-a-thon but it will be incorporated with my high school, St. Francis High School in La Canada. See you all there! 

You can visit the Crank LA Clothing store here.

American Giving Awards!

Cameron Sinclair,  the co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, gave my mother and I tickets to see the American Giving Awards. I am very grateful for the tickets because the stories I heard at the American Giving Awards inspired me to not give up until the orphanage had the 42 bicycles and a functional electric irrigation pump. The host Joel McHale was hilarious, the musicians like Colbie Caillat, Natasha Bedingfield, Darius Rucker, Lifehouse, and Randy Travis were also amazing and entertaining.


You can visit the Architecture for Humanity website here.

Bicycles from Wheels 4 Life

The two goals of this project is to donate 42 bicycles to the orphans and all the additional funds will go to the construction of an electrical irrigation pump. I found out about Wheels 4 Life though twitter and they are an organization that donates bicycles to third world countries. I emailed the director of the organization, so they can help me donate the bicycles. If they decide to help me donate the bicycles, all the funds raised by fundraisers will then be used for the completion of the electric irrigation pump. The director of the Machao Orphanage Foundation and I filled out an application and sent it to Wheels 4 Life.

You can visit the Wheels 4 Life website here.

Tweet from Jake Tapper of ABC

Today I received a tweet from Jake Tapper of ABC, at least someone had the time to care and reply about our cause. Thank you Jake Tapper! Check out his blog!

                                                       

Challenges along the way

It has been a tough week, I realized that this journey is going to be more difficult than I thought. I have passed out hundreds of flyers and talked with many business owners but I have not received any positive feedback yet. This has been a very valuable lesson because I can not take "No" as an answer. Most people and business might not have the money to donate, but my friends and I will not stop trying until 15 bicycles are in the hands of the orphans at the Machao Orphanage.

First Donation from Riedon

Today I got my first donation from Riedon, a resistor company in Alhambra, California. They were very kind to donate $300! Thank you for everyone who donated, the orphans in Kenya will be very happy with their new bicycles!

                                                                                                             

Cardboard Bicycle

I admire this inventor, his name is Izhar Gafni and he is a 50 year-old man from Isreal. I will try to contact him to see if his $20 cardboard bicycle can be used in Kenya for the orphans.

Looking for Sponsors!

Today Alex and I went to these local business to ask for their support:

1. Montrose Bike Shop
2. Trader Joe's
3. Froyolife
4. Starbucks
5. Coffee Bean

We are happy to say that Montrose Bike Shop, Trader Joe's,
and Froyolife are interested in helping us. Tomorrow we are going to talk to their managers to discuss our project in more depth. Wish us luck!

                                                                             

How to Donate!

1. Online: Go to the Machao Orphanage website and follow the easy instructions.

2. Check: Write to Machao Orphanage Foundation and mail it to: P.O. Box 3856
Glendale, CA 91221 USA

3. Non-Profit Tax ID Number: The Machao Orphanage Foundation is a 501(c)(3) corporation qualified by IRS Determination Letter #17053328063023. Our EIN (tax ID) number is 81-0621107.

My Second Volunteer

Last week, Alex and I biked to the Griffith Observatory,

it was a 30 miles ride, mostly uphill. The view from the top

was absolutely amazing!

Whenever I go biking, I seldom go alone. I like to bike with a friend so we can talk about various topics and make the ride more interesting.

One of my friends is Alex who I go biking with frequently. I asked him if he was interested and he happily agreed to help me in our cause. He is in a mountain biking team, and he is very talented. With Alex's connections, we are hoping to spread awareness for Bikes 4 Orphanages and inspire more teenagers to join our effort.

Here is the new flyer!

I am going to be walking around the neighborhood and passing the flyer out to local business. Wish me luck!

My First Volunteer

A bicycle I rented to go biking along
the Malibu beach coastline.

Today I asked my brother, Shawnt, who is 14 years old, to support Bikes 4 Orphanages. He is very talented with computers and programming, having recently built his own desktop computer. I asked him if  he can take care of the technological aspect of this project, such as making flyers, improving the blog, creating an official website, and marketing this project through crowdrise.com and gofundme.com. He is almost done with the flyers which will generate revenue by offering dog walking services and tutoring services for a modest price along with a donation. I am currently looking to recruit more volunteers over the next few days from my high school.

Operation: Bikes 4 Orphanages

Hi, my name is Sebouh and I am a 16 year old boy with a passion for cycling. My goal is to help share my passion with orphans around the world and inspire my friends to join me in this journey.

Some of the children at the
Machao Orphanage Foundation

The purpose of this blog is to chronologically outline the steps I will be taking to raise enough funds and bicycles to help the first orphanage of this project, the children at Machao Orphanage in Makueni, Kenya. The 42 children at the orphanage are 6 to 18 years old who are in need of food and better means of transportation. Everyday, they have to walk for 50 minutes in the scorching African heat to go to school and then walk the same distance back. The bicycles will give them the independence they need to find work and stay focused at school.

Here is the link to the Machao Orpahange Foundation, just in case if you happen to be my first reader and want to donate.