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Follow Us on Our Journey
Below you will find our travel itinerary. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we will be setting off from Beijing on June 13th 2008, and ending in Hong Kong on July 24th 2008. Realistically speaking, however, our dates and destinations will most likely fluctuate. The trip will take us from Northern China to Southern China following the Eastern seaboard. Or, if you are partial to the rooster analogy of China, we’ll be traveling from the Neck to the Gut following the outline of the Belly.
Trip Breakdown
Biking Days: 31
Volunteering Days: 4
Rest Days: 5
Total Distance: 3455KM
Your Money Goes to a Good Cause
On the macro level…
“Zhang ShuGui was just one day old when a local villager found her small body by the side of the road. She seemed unusually fragile to the man who lifted her from the ground. Peering at the tiny face, red and swollen with angry cries, he took a quick intake of breath, startled. Where her mouth should have been was a cavernous hole-or at least that’s the way it looked to him. This tiny thing he was holding had a cleft lip and a severe one by the looks of it. He re-wrapped her with the worn blanket he had found her in and hastened his steps to the police station. Her physical impairment would seal her fate, he thought-to live an orphan’s life in the local social welfare institute.
Zhang Shugui is one of the many children in China who once called the local orphanage her home and the women who tended to her needs, her aunties. There are still many orphans with special needs residing in Chinese orphanages. While some of the children are adopted both within their country and internationally, many are not. And children born with any physical defect have an even smaller chance finding their way into a forever family.
That’s a reality that Red Thread Charities (RTC) would like to change. Created in January 2006, RTC is a non-profit foundation dedicated to serving the needs of Chinese orphans through training programs and humanitarian aid projects. RTC and its board of directors - most of the board have adopted from China - are on a mission; to begin with two orphanages, provide various types of training to its staff so they, in turn, can better serve the needs of the children.”
On the micro level (per orphanage)…
$150 USD/Month - Nanny $300 USD/Month - Special Ed Teacher $300 USD/Month - Physical Therapist
$275 USD/Each - Rehabilitation Mattress $100 USD/Each - Therapy Ball $150 USD/Each - Portable Heater
$400 USD/Set - Special Education Classroom Furniture and Furnishings $500 USD/Set - Activity Room Furniture and Furnishings
Still Interested?
Don’t stop here! Learn more about Red Thread Charities via their website:
http://www.redthreadcharities.org/index.htm
For the Children
International adoption in China has been thriving for the past decade, with thousands of children being placed into loving “forever families” every year. In fact, so many beautiful children have been given a second chance at life that countless overcrowded orphanages are now just quiet vestiges of their former selves. With the continued departure of healthy children from orphanages, however, one thing has become painfully clear: the majority of those that remain have special needs. Common conditions include Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, and Cleft Lip/Palate, just to name a few.
China is very much so a “2nd world country.” In the glitzy and glamorous cities of Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Beijing, one would not feel out of place sporting the latest fashion trends while playing with the most up-to-date technology. In the rural farming communities of China, however, one may be hard pressed to find running water and electricity. The wealth disparity is vast, and reliable access to properly educated medical personnel is near impossible for the majority of special needs orphans. And without access to proper medical care and physical therapy, many of these children lag far behind developmentally compared to their counterparts in the West.
We will be biking across China (from Beijing in the north to Hong Kong in the south) in the summer of 2008 in order to raise money and awareness for special needs children living in Chinese orphanages. We will be donating all proceeds to Red Thread Charities, a 501(c)3 certified non-profit organization based in Minnesota “dedicated to serving the needs of Chinese orphans through training programs and humanitarian aid projects.”
Because we are very ambitious individuals, and because we believe that our cause is a worthy one, we have set our fundraising goal at $20,000 USD. If you are interested in donating, we have many different options available to you in the “Donation Info” page. Your donations are completely tax-deductible.
Thank you so much for your time, attention, and generosity.
Please note that 100% of your donations will be going to charitable causes. The costs of this trip will be completely self-funded!
100% Tax-Deductible Donations
We have three different methods available to facilitate your donations: credit card, cash/check, and direct bank account transfer.
1) Credit Card - Firstgiving.Com
We are using a website called Firstgiving that helps “[enable] people to raise money online for their favorite charities with a personalized online fundraising page.” Clicking that neat little button to the right of this block of text will bring you to our fundraising page where you can sponsor us as well as track our progress.
We understand that you may have concerns regarding online sponsorships. The following are some responses to the more frequently asked questions.
2) Cash / Check
If you would prefer to sponsor us via cash or check, you can send your donation directly to…
Red Thread Charities 6632 West Shore Drive Edina, MN, 55435
Please make checks payable to…
Red Thread Charities
Click HERE or below to download a mail-in donation form (PDF). Please include it with your cash/check.
We will update our blog on a weekly basis to display all donations received via cash, check, and Paypal. (Those made via Firstgiving are automatically displayed)
If you would prefer to remain anonymous, simply notify us of such on the mail-in donation form.
3) Bank Account - Paypal.Com
To donate directly via a transfer from your bank account, we are using a website called Paypal. Paypal is an established and trustworthy service that helps “individuals and businesses send and receive money online.”
If you would prefer to remain anonymous, simply notify us of such with your donation.
Your Encouraging Words are Like Carrots-on-a-Stick
We will be updating our blog once a day (to the best of our abilities) after our trip begins. We would love to hear your thoughts and thus we would really appreciate your feedback. Our blog makes commenting easy by including a comment box for each individual entry.
You can also email us individually or as a team with questions, comments, suggestions, concerns, etc…
Billy Pan BILLYXIAPAN [at] GMAIL [dot] COM
Steven Chen STEVEN.CHEN [at] ALUMNI [dot] USC [dot] EDU
Biking China Team BIKE.CHINA.2008 [at] GMAIL [dot] COM
Getting to Know Us in 200 Words or Less
Steven:
I am a 2006 graduate of the University of Southern California. After graduating, I joined Teach for America, an organization dedicated to closing the achievement gap in public education. I teach 11th and 12th grade English at Forrest City High School in Arkansas. It is a pretty big change of pace from the bustle and lights of Los Angeles, but I really enjoy teaching my students. In fact, after this bike trip, I plan on returning for a third year.
Besides the obvious charitable reasons for going on this trip, I think there is a part of me that still has an unfulfilled desire to travel to a foreign land and do something good. Last year, I was a finalist in the New York Times “Win a Trip with Nick Kristof” contest, but I did not get the opportunity to go on the trip. When Billy contacted me and asked if I wanted to join him on his bike trip, I immediately got excited because rather than just tourism, we were going to also raise money and awareness to a cause I was pretty unfamiliar with. I am really glad to have an opportunity to raise money for charity while doing something I would have never considered doing on my own.
Craig:
As an attorney, I have served on a number of boards of directors and am presently a member of the Red Thread Charities advisory board. I am a 1984 graduate of the University of Illinois and I received my law degree from the University of Minnesota in 1987. I have practiced law since 1987, but now I spend most of my time on volunteer work. My wife, Kathy Bjornson, and I have two children adopted from China.
I am joining the trip across China this summer because I really believe in the work of our organization and I want to help continue funding its activities. China is going through incredible changes right now and I am hoping that our work will highlight the need to help China’s orphaned children. Additionally, like I said before, I have two daughters who were from Chinese orphanages and I hope to give something back. And of course, I enjoy Chinese cuisine.
Billy:
I graduated from the University of Southern California in 2007. In my free time I enjoy reading non-fiction books about China, participating in various forms of individual sports, and watching television from time to time. My peak participatory years in front of the “tube” have made me “legally blind” and apparently a “menace on the road” without “corrective eyewear.” I will be returning to USC in the fall of 2008 to start medical school.
I went on a trip with Red Thread Charities to China in the fall of 2007. To fully detail all of my experiences to you would require days of writing. So instead of trying to be all encompassing, I am only going to briefly mention one thing that sticks out in my mind: the need for trained professionals in rural China. The fact that many parents from the community waited over half a day just so that their special needs child could be seen by one of our team’s medical personnel speaks volumes. And the fact that our physicians, nurses, therapists, and specialists were all determined to stay until every last child was examined is a testament to their compassion. I really hope that this trip will not only prove to be a significant source of funding for Red Thread Charities, but that it will also raise the general public’s awareness to the plight of special needs children throughout the world.
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