Leadership

Two days ago, we left Sarcelles, France and headed to St. Quentin, France. The ride was met again with a headwind and more hills! Luckily, we had plenty of time to complete the ride and finished all 85 miles without any incident. This morning, we woke up in St. Quentin and headed for Brussels, Belgium. Due to some logistical errors (read: getting lost), we only finished 75 of the 85 mile day, but managed to cycle to the border and a little ways into Belgium. Although we haven't had any friendship visits, the time has allowed us to focus on completing as many miles as possible and reflect on our mission of serving people with disabilities. The discussions on the bikes and at meals between the team has generally been about what we are learning, thanking our sponsors, donors, and family for their support, but today we talked about the mission statement of Push America.

The mission of Push America is "Building leaders of tomorrow by serving people with disabilities today." The focus of our trip is to primarily serve people with disabilities. However, the fact that this is a new event, it has required a lot of leadership from not only me, but every member of the team. The planning process demanded a lot of time and energy, but the trip itself is where our leadership has been needed most. For example, Jay Baumgardner is the strongest cyclist on the team, and works hard on the bike to help "pull" Addison and myself up steep hills. Addison, as many of you know, has an amazing personality and keeps us excited and laughing on the trip. Ethan, as our Crew Chief, constantly double checks our directions on paper with the GPS at every turn and scouts the road ahead to ensure our safety. As the Project Manager, it is my job to make sure we are organized and ready for each day, each visit, each sponsor, and ensuring we represent our sponsors, our donors, KinderFrogs, and our Fraternity as best we can. Each of us have stepped up in great ways this trip, and the leadership experience from this trip will undoubtable serve us in the future as we venture further into the future. 

Overall, the leadership experiences I have been exposed to . I have been mesmerized by the leadership abilities of the leaders of the organizations we have met. And I have been absolutely blown away by the leadership demonstrated by Ethan, Jay, and Addison while in Europe this trip. The four of us have made this a memorable event and have hopefully set a solid foundation for the continuation of this event.