Ride 4 Rwanda Recap & Review of the short film Pascal's Bike
Thank you to all who participated for helping make the 3rd Annual Ride4Rwanda such a great success despite a Rwandan-style rain storm. As Pascal (the coffee farmer) said in my film: "during the rainy season the roads are slippery." We counted over 50 people in the massage circle, and the final donation tally was over $2,000! Every dollar of your donations will go directly to helping get bikes to farmers like Pascal.
Big thanks to Jeannine's Bakery, The Good Cup, Equal World Coffee and Robin Himovitz for providing enough coffee and tasty treats for an army.
Also thanks to Pam Boswell, Lilli Donner, Lynn Seigel-Boettner, Anne Beemer, and the SBMS students who helped get posters out, man the registration tables, and hold down the fort while we were on the ride.
Santa Barbaraʼs Ride For Rwanda Weekend
Caked in hardening mud, a dirty cup of luke-warm hot chocolate cluched in your hand, you plead with your parents to let you stay a little bit longer. This was the situation for the sixty kids and a handful of adults after riding on the 3rd annual Ride 4 Rwanda. We all arrived at 9 am sharp, and after replacing some ripped rim-tape for duct-tape and a couple cups of freshly brewed Rwandan Coffee, we circled up for the scheduled puja. Jacob Seigel-Boettner, a Project Rwanda intern and a close friend of mine stepped to the middle of our circle and compared the Project's Coffee Bike to a Wooden Bike the team had brought back from Rwanda, and then I got to hear from one of my heros, mountain biking legend, Tom Ritchey. He explained what inspired him to start Project Rwanda and how the Ride 4 Rwanda came about. It was great to hear from this man who I revered talk about something that was so close to my heart. Once we he was done speaking, we set out on the dirtiest ride of my life. After slipping down muddy hills, falling into a bush or two, we returned back home after a ride well done and a ride for a great cause Project Rwanda!
The Premier of Pascalʼs Bike
On the night before the Ride, Jacobʼs film Pascalʼs Bike premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. (click the photo to view the teaser)
Shown with the main feature Poto Mitan, Jacob Seigel-Boettner's Pascal's Bike was a shorter film but had a lot of power. Pascal's Bike is similar to ceremony at Gettysburg. One man spoke for a hour, and Abraham Lincoln spoke for 2 minutes. Lincoln had even more power in his 2 minute speech than someone else had in an hour. This was a solid story of a Rwandan coffee farmer, his family, his village, and the effect a bicycle can have. Jacob's film had strong passion. Overall I would recommend seeing this movie. If you want an uplifting tale, this is your film.
