Written by: Susan Pratt, Orange Ride
Why do I keep coming back year after year? Perhaps it’s because it allows me the opportunity to see, feel, and experience every mile of the country from Seattle to Washington, D.C. Perhaps it’s because it allows me the opportunity to meet people of each community, and share our faith in action. Perhaps it’s because of the opportunity I have to pound nails, hang drywall, replace doors and windows, and reroof a home as we begin to transform lives of others. Or, perhaps it’s because it gives me the opportunity to build a new family out of thirty-eight strangers and develop a cohesive group that together cries, laughs, encourages, cheers, hugs, and so much more.
I do believe it is a mixture of all these things. But, I do know one thing for certain, and it’s that each of us is a living example of the true meaning of success. Each one of us is enduring and may have endured struggles in the past that seemed insurmountable. But, we have all worked through them and arrived at a place that we never thought we would be—a nine week cross-country ride of 3,600 miles and more than 50,000 feet in elevation gain, all for the purpose of bringing joy to other people’s lives.
