EPIC re-re-cap

Sorry for the delay in posts everyone, I've been crazy busy with sports and school. Right now I'm working on getting our "Kilometers for Freedom" fundraiser up and going! There will be a larger release at a later date once  it's all set up. However, here's a sneak peek! With an end goal of $50,000 for this fundraiser, we will be 'selling kilometers'. How will this work you ask? Simple. Once we have our set rout, we will take the distance and divide our goal by that, this will give us a price per kilometer, and we will then sell the kilometers! Kilometers can be purchased by submitting your money, and we will let you know what Kilometer number or numbers you purchased. Then, at the end of each day on our trip, we will update our trip blog with the kilometers we rode that day, so you will know exactly when we rode in appreciation of your support. Again, stay tuned to our blogs, our website http://www.epicriders.org/ and our EPIC Riders group on facebook, http://www.facebook.com/EPICRiders for further information, and the price of a kilometer.

In other news... Training time unfortunately been minimal but I will be going out very soon to get some more time in! I was going to go out today since it is so lovely out.... but decided you were more important! I will be meeting with my managers sometime in the near future to organize my work schedule for the summer so I have lots of time to get out riding! I want to double my summer biking distance that I set last year.

Our current team status is four riders with the recent loss of our driver, so if you or someone you know would be interested in partaking of this EPIC trip as the most EPIC driver around, let us know this will be a crucial roll on the team and is needed to make this endeavor successful.

Last but not least, please be praying for the whole team! The organization of this is not easy, especially for our mastermind Ben! We all have school and are doing our best, but we could use all the help we can get!

Thanks,
Evan Redka

Some Pictures for ya'll!

Wow I am a terrible person. I haven't updated ya'll in a while! So here's how things sit.
- Summer riding... AWESOME logged loads of km's
- Ride for Refuge, going down this saturday Oct. 1st. Fundraising goal has been raised.
- Bike condition... mediocre. Blew a tube a few km's from home last week. Got a good walk though!                  Looking into new grip tape for my bars, my current stuff has just about fallen off.
- My EPIC CHANGE BOX has accumulated nearly $350 of pocket change that I have been throwing in since the beginning of my time with the EPIC team
- Still on fire for Invisible Children
- Rarely updating blog, but still working hard elsewhere!
- School... Gr11!
- Volleyball every day after school
- Drivers training twice a week
- Biking whenever possible between everything else!

Well with fall and ultimately winter on the horizon I am looking into cold weather and winter riding but have to clue where to start. Any tips on keeping warm, equipment to keep me safe, or parts to maintain my bike in the harsh weather would be awesome and you can send them to me at vnekadrae@gmail.com
Cheers,
Evan Redka

What the heck?! did I buy that TREK?!

I GOT A BIKE! And as the title may give away, it is a TREK, but more specifically, a TREK 5500 I got an amazing deal, from a friend and only had to dish out $450! I absolutely love it and have put over 100 clicks on it already! I am really growing to enjoy biking more and more! (and I loved it before so just imagine!!!)
Luke and I went riding the other day and right now I'm looking into getting together with another avid biker from Glenview once a week to go riding! Oh, and some good news to go along with that... he has expressed some interest.... well actually a lot of interest in joining the team!

I dont even know where to begin right now about how excited I am for the ride! Every time I check the Facebook page or website and see updated it gets me more and more pumped! Not too long now until we will be looking for sponsors and hopefully getting details laid down! Oh what a day that will be... and then the glorious fundraising :P that'll be an adventure! Got any fundraising ideas? Shoot em here! We'll need all the suggestions we can get!

Thanks and until next time,
Cheerio, Evan

ola!

Well its been a while, and things have definitely changed! We have a new member which is awesome and were all so grateful to have her with us! Also we have the Invisible Children 25 coming up this weekend! Unfortunately I think my package with my shirt and other stuff got lost in the mail... so I will have to make my own shirt :D
Its going to be a crazy summer! I have a lot of biking to do and also I will be working quite a bit! At the moment I am debating staying part time for the summer, or switching to full time. I need time to get biking in with everything so full time would limit that to only a day or two a week, but I need money, and part time just doesn't bring in enough... too bad its money that makes the world go 'round... :( Any prayers would be greatly appreciated right now! I really have no clue what I'm going to do in the next few months.

As for school, its going great! Badminton ended well with some team mates going on to win CWOSSA! (If you're familiar with the rest of the team, Luke's brother and his partner won CWOSSA) I for one have moved on to a sport I perform better in... JAVELIN! As of last year I am the WCSSAA champion, CWOSSA runner up, and West Regionals Top Ten! This year has started off well with a canceled track meet (haha) and I am striving for better things! Hopefully OFSSAA this year, but at least West Regionals again!

Thanks for everything guys!  Support really helps when it comes to making the decision of working out and biking over work, school or video games... although now with KINECT video games can be a workout! I'm planning to get a new bike sometime soon to replace my mammoth I have been riding for the last 4 years, its a little bit un-ergonomic if you know what I mean. (Tires as wide as a pop can.)

Well thats all for now! Catch yah later! (see you on the road ;P)

,Evan Redka

P.s. Dont forget to check out the other Team members blogs as well!

25 (link to pledge page)

Hey guys, its been a while! I just signed up with Invisible Children for the 25 hours of silence! I ordered my action kit, set up my Pledge page, and have contacted a whole bunch of people about it! If you know anyone who may be interested, let them know about my page! I have set a goal for myself of $200, a good number I think! And I believe it can be met and passed! Here's a link to my page.
http://ic.stayclassy.org/member/ic-fundraising?fcid=53050

On the other hand, training has been going good, staying active every day and some major school tournaments coming up soon. I haven't been able to get my bike out yet though... it was so nice for a while and I was going to get it out, then we got this mess of snow and record low temperatures.... oh well, soon enough.

Thanks for the support, and keep checking in!
Evan

A reminder

Hey guys, to start I will mention how hard it has been lately for me to find the motivation to keep working hard with all this. I had forgotten why I was doing it. There was just no burning desire to work so hard for something so far away. But today I was at the the Me to We conference (some people may know it as WE Day) and one of the speakers was a University of Toronto student with an amazing and powerful story. He was four years old and was living in Kenya. Everyday before he left for school his father would say to him "Be home before six!" but as school ended he was split between two options, be Dad's good little boy or go play soccer with his friends. Unaware of the extreme danger that resulted in his parents laying down their rule he went to play soccer. As the boys 4-15 played soccer a few military trucks stopped a little ways off and soldiers filed out of the back. They aproached the boys and grabed them and sorted them by age. As the soldiers stood towering over the small four year old, he realized that they were not playing a game. After being thrown into the truck and driven off somewhere away from everything, they were unloaded. They then grabbed the boy and slit his wrist. They rubbed a mixture of cocaine and gun powder in his cut, causing him to go crazy. They then blindfolded him and forced a gun into his hands. Being so young he could not hold the heavy rifle, so they forced the gun into his hands. They started yelling, "SHOOT! SHOOT!" and he did. His hands hurt from the repeated shaking of the gun as his tiney fingers brought the beast to life. The blindfold was then removed. He was a soldier. As what had gone on outside the blindfold came into view, on the floor was a boy, laying in his own blood, he was twelve, they had been best friends. This is why I am doing this, to give those children who have no voice a chance to be heard, a chance to be seen, a chance to be saved. These children are invisible. These children need something to be done. They need the world to say, 'We have had enough of Joseph Koney!' We are biking across Canada to raise money, awarenes and hope for the children. But it takes more than the group we have. We need more! We need everyone to say ENOUGH! These children should be at home. These children should be playing, not killing. These children should be happy. These children should be free. These children are invisible.