Bike the Drive!

Thanks again to everyone who helped support us and send Domi to summer school!

We did it!!

GREAT news! Domi was just offered a partial scholarship to the Loyola summer program, so combined with your contributions to her scholarship fund, she is not only able to attend the program, but she is able to attend full-time, instead of just part-time.

THANK YOU to everyone who supported Domi's summer school! She is so excited to start this July.

If anyone is still interested in doing Bike the Drive, let me know! I'll be out there bright and early.

Blair

Update - May 3, 2011

Wow! Thanks to everyone who has given, we are only $734 away from reaching our goal of $1800, which covers tuition, books, and transportation for Domi's summer school.

Bike the Drive is less than a month away, so please consider helping us reach $1800 by making a secure donation online via PayPal. You do not have to have a PayPal account to donate.

Just joining us? Click here to read about what we're doing and why!
Thanks again to everyone for your support!

Biker #5!

And we have another biker! It's Jen Prosniewski, aka Nurse Jen, another one of my friends and sorority sisters from The U. I am so glad that Jen is joining to bike with us and raise funds, for a few reasons! First of all, she is all about fitness, so I have a feeling her ability to bike 30 miles will inspire me to not sit down on the side of the road at 8:30 AM and cry. Secondly, Jen is a nurse, and Domi wants to go to college to become a nurse. How inspiring! And lastly, I think it's worth mentioning that this is not all Jen is doing to help teenage refugee girls. In a few weeks she will be a guest speaker at Girls Group, the new weekly teen girl group at the organization, and will talk to a room full of giggling high school girls about health and wellness. Thanks, Jen!


Help Jen (and the rest of us) raise the $1800 we need to send Domi to school. *You do not have to have a PayPal account to donate.*

Half the Drive = $15
$1 per mile = $30
$5 per mile = $150
$10 per mile = $300

Bike the Drive 2011 - 30 Miles to School

That's me!

Hello everyone, and happy April!

On Sunday, May 29, I will be participating in "Bike the Drive" on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive. That means I will be biking 30 miles from the southern end of Lake Shore Drive to the northern end and back. And I'm wondering if you would like to participate with me!

The event runs from 5:30 AM - 9:45 AM. It costs $42 to sign up if you are not a member of the Active Transportation Alliance, and that includes a t-shirt, and can you really go wrong with a free t-shirt? If you happen to be a member of the Active Transportation Alliance it costs $37. So far, my fellow bike riders include Erica Jones, Allie Stern, and Julie Kissane!

The first three bikers!

Originally, I just wanted to do this because I thought it would be fun. I like biking, and I especially like biking by the lake so it seemed like the perfect alternative to the marathon, which so many of you seem to be running these days, and which I would never do in a million years. Now, I am doing it for another reason. As some of you may know, when I moved to Chicago, I started tutoring for the Youth Program at a refugee resettlement organization. For a while I was just offering homework help to any students who needed it. But after a few weeks, Amy, the Youth Program Coordinator, asked if I would start working with a particular student one-on-one. And that's when I met Domi. Domi is 18 years old and a Burundian refugee. Her mother fled Burundi in 1972, when violence erupted between the Hutus and Tutsis (the ethnic groups that also clashed in Rwanda). After fleeing Burundi, her mother lived in the Congo, where Domi was born. Because of civil war in the Congo, the family once again fled and went to Tanzania, where they lived in a refugee camp until 2008. After spending most of her life in a refugee camp, Domi was resettled with her mother and siblings in Chicago. She is a sophomore in high school, but because she did not have access to education for much of her life, she is struggling academically. Domi's mother works long hours and so Domi is often in charge of the household - taking care of her younger siblings, cooking dinner, and cleaning. She tries very hard in school, but her limited English skills make it difficult for her to catch up on material.

Ice skating in Hyde Park!

I now work with Domi between 6 - 8 hours per week on homework, English, catching up on subjects like math and history, and occasionally going on fun trips to museums or the movies. She works very hard and wants to be the best student she can be so that she can study nursing in college. When researching summer programs for her, I unfortunately realized that she is in a tough situation. Because she is enrolled in high school, she does not qualify for free ESL or high school classes at the local community college. And many of the other free ESL programs do not run during the summer. I have found one option that seems to have everything she needs - an intensive ESL program at Loyola, just a few L stops from her apartment, that specifically prepares students for the classroom and workplace. The only problem: the total cost for her will be about $1800. After all my research and reaching out to her teachers and other resources, I believe that this would be the best option for her to be prepared for the rest of high school and, eventually, additional education.

So I am taking this bike ride as an opportunity to raise money to send Domi to summer school. With four people participating, we each only have to raise $450 to cover the $1800, which includes tuition, books, and transportation to and from campus. The more people who join the effort, the easier it will be!

Let me know if you are interested in joining the fun! You can sign up for Bike the Drive here. I will soon be adding a PayPal option to the web site so that donations to Domi's summer school fund can be made online. Please e-mail me if you have questions!

Hope you can bike with me!

Blair