Back With A Mission - TEAM WILL!

Members of Team Will just before the press conferance at the State Capital.
Yep, those are my legs sticking out from under the Team Will poster. I was trying to be inconspicuous.

Tribe Tracks' winter hiatus is over and boy have we been busy! Now it's time for me to get back on the bike and training again. This year's goal Cat 3! But before I start getting too excited about my own goals this year I was hoping you could take a moment to join us in helping a very worthy cause realize some of their own goals for this year.

Dawn & Jax working on a card.

It is so easy to get caught up in the drama of our own lives: trying to realize a dream before time runs out; trying to rebuild a home for my family; trying to recover from financial pitfalls and so on and so forth. It all takes up a lot of my attention and I never seem to have enough for everything but just when I start to feel overwhelmed by my own problems I get a reality check that puts everything in perspective.

The name of the person that delivered my latest and perhaps most profound reality check was John Depew; a fellow employee and Body Concepts teammate. John also rides for Team Will, a non-profit that raises public awareness and funds for childhood cancer research and family resources. Last week John’s wife Lisa sent out an email for an upcoming Team Will event at the state capitol. There were two ways we could help at the event. One was to be a physical presence to show support. The other was to make Valentine’s day cards for children at a local hospital.

Lisa and John made a good case and I am lucky enough to work at a place that allows me to take a little time off to go support good causes so we decided to go to the event and to get our kids involved in making cards for the children in the hospital. Over the weekend we had our kid card factory going creating cards. They eagerly cut shapes and used stickers and stamps to put pictures and phrases on the cards. (My wife is a great with crafty stuff.)  My two older boys had a school holiday so this was a great break from TV and video games that sometimes become too prevalent during bad weather.

The boys and I deliver the cards we made to Lisa at the event.

While I was at the event I was busy chasing the three boys around while Dawn took pictures and got folks to sign greetings on balloons that would be delivered to children at the UC Davis hospital. Trying to keep them entertained at the event was difficult but I still heard some key points that really made me think. Several speakers talked about young children, about the age range of the three boys I was chasing, being diagnosed with cancer and passing away a short time later. It was scary thinking of that happening to any of my kids and I could not begin to imagine the great sorrow the parents must feel at losing their own kids at such young ages.

I also heard about the massive financial struggles that those parents go through. We have had our challenges these past few years but nothing like those parents. While they watch their children struggle they are behind on medical, house, credit, and card bills. It certainly gave me pause and to count myself lucky for although my struggles sometimes feel monumental to me, they are nothing compared to what these families go through.

Whenever we can, GroveTribe looks for ways to give back and Team Will is one of the organizations we are going to be promoting and supporting and we hope you will join us. If you know of a teacher or leader of a youth group please tell them to consider participating the Team Will Cards for Kids program If you would like to make a donation or find out more about Team Will, visit their website at http://www.team-will.org

Special thanks to John and Lisa for all their work in Team Will and sharing their experience with us!

BTW... KCRA news did a brief report on the rally here (you can hear Dawn cheering in the background. LOL!) http://www.kcra.com/video/30466580/detail.html?fb_ref=video_top&fb_source=other_oneline