What do you think?

I want to promote an epic bike ride in the next year or two in the Salt Lake Valley that can't be duplicated anywhere near a major metropolitan area... Why you ask? Please read on-

Nicholas Negropante is a man that has a big goal and refuses to be told he can't accomplish it. He is the founder of a non-profit organization called One Laptop Per Child http://www.xogiving.org/ His goal- to provide a laptop to every child that needs one in Africa. He met with the leaders of three African Nations to tell them that he wanted to produce a very cost attractive computer to accomplish his goal. One leader in particular shared her (rather large concerns) like-

• We lack sufficient energy resources- can you make it super energy efficient, that will require low wattage?- Answer from N.N.- "sure!"
• These will be going to kids, can you make it extremely durable- Answer from N.N.- "sure."
• Can you make it solar powered?.."sure."
• Can you make it really sensitive to local hot spots? ..."sure."
• Can you make it so it is impervious to severe heat..."sure."
• Since they will be used outside can you make them glare resistant?... "sure."

(paraphrasing) "in fact I'll make it cool looking with neat software for music and a couple of interactive games, and make it e-book extraordinaire. Oh yeah, and my goal is to produce them for $100 US dollars each."

So, Nicholas went back to his production plant in Cambridge MA and had his team work it up... and now... it is rated very highly for its indestructibility, and might be one of the most sensitive units out there for hot spots... it is solar powered, is super energy efficient, is really cool looking, is bake tested in ovens to 140 degrees F, and has the cool software stuff he mentioned to her... Right now it's price point is $188 because of lack of production, but they may be able to produce this in the near future (based on volume) for get this, da, da, da, da... $50!

Now he needs governments, companies, organizations and individuals to donate $$$. He is offering a one and one special. You buy one for $399 dollars and one is donated AND shipped to an African child. Your purchase is tax deductible,so it is really just about $288 (based on your tax bracket).

Here is my idea (I would like everyone who reads this blog to let me know what they think, please!)

I want to establish an truly epic ride. It will be called the Daniel "Popa" Santoro Tribute ride for African Children.

It will encompass six Salt Lake Canyons, 16,000 vertical feet and run 130 miles...It will start in Draper, go up the North Side of Traverse Ridge to the Stop sign and back down then up and down Little, Big, Mill (to the gate), Emigration and City, ending at the top with a party...

This could be done (before) in conjunction with Lotoja as a training ride, it also would be invaluable to those training for the Everest Challenge. As you know everyone and there brothers asks this question to every cyclist around "did you do LOTOJA?"... now they may say... "did you do Popa's?" We are the only city, possibly anywhere, that has the canyons to do it, and the population of riders to make this ride a true great!

It gets better, like the MS ride we will ask for donations, all proceeds going to One Laptop Per Child, and we could even pick a sister African Township of say 3,000 school age children to try to meet the goal of supplying them all! Individual certificates go out to all who completed at least one canyon, this could be incentive each year to do more canyons, obviously promoting a more healthy lifestyle for the typical citizen riders. Each year we could pick another sister township and so on... It also makes us, as cyclist's, more human to non-cyclists in the community... when we do something truly altruistic like this. I'm really charged about this one, I realize the challenges, but whatever, look at what Nick did... he's the hero here.

Thanks for your time reading this, so what do you think?

B-Horn