It's been a long time comin

Wendie's Wish is a non-profit organization that exists to serve cancer patients in the community financially. Specifically our mission is "Connecting families struggling with the collateral damage of cancer to a community that brings hope with finacial and service oriented assistance." Our namesake is Wendie Melikian and her wish was that people would love and serve each other, that's the idea that we were born out of. But that wasn't necessarily the beginning and it's definitely not the end.

Two years ago (Summer of 2011) an old teammate of mine, Evan Hibbs, was suffering from an injury due to his running career and needed a way to train. We dragged the old road bikes out of his garage that might of originally been built by the Wright brothers. We started pedaling along every day and in one conversation we joked about riding across the country one day. Boom. The spark to start the fire. We were just stupid enough to have an idea that only college kids with no responsibility could think of. The idea had followed my mothers passing so it only fit that we ride for a non-profit and save money. We sat down with other college kids around my kitchen table putting together ideas, budgets, possibilities, routes, things I never thought would actually take form. Thinking anyone would take us I set up meetings with potential organizations in the fall of my freshman year at Texas A&M University (Whoop!) After multiple "almost" meetings and liability issues I gave my dad a phone call and told him it wasn't possible...unless we did our own thing so we didn't have to sell our souls to another organization.

During that Christmas break multiple other types of meetings happened. Meetings with the people that would eventually become my Board of Directors. Meetings with older men who sat across from a 19 year old kid with a bike and a dream and said "We can do this". I trusted those men with everything and in March of 2012 Wendie's Wish was born but was far from being any sort of real shape. To fast forward you through the year and spare you from boring stories it is now April of 2013 and we have come a long way. We were featured in the Georgetown View and most recently The Battalion at Texas A&M. People have been inspired by the selfless hearts of a few college kids who want to give up their summers to make a difference. We have a fully functional board (For the most part, let's be fair those guys were crazy enough to name a 20 year old as their director) and people are helping us build a solid base so we can FINALLY begin to help and make a difference.

Let it be known to anyone and everyone that none of this is possibly without the college kids who want to make a difference, the community that selflessly gives, the board that works their butts off and my God who is infinitely good. It has been two years and here we are, two months away, from an 1800 mile ride starting on the East Coast.

It has been multiple maps, phone calls, bike rides, video shoots, runs, and experimentation and after two years things are finally about to feel real. So...what's the point of this blog? Just to vent about how excited I am that I get the chance of a lifetime? no. Believe it or not this blog is for you. I often have people ask me about the ride and all the details and who is going blah blah blah. Well...over the next two months I (Laine) or another rider will be posting on here about their training that week, what they are looking forward to about the ride, how they have been prepping the trip, what their heart for Wendie's Wish is, and many other subjects that may bore you out of your mind or may make you think, "Who is stupid enough to ride a bike through West Virginia?" Our answer? We're crazy enough. So crazy it's all we talk about and think about. What started with a woman in a wheelchair trying to help with Christmas dinner because she was a servant, has become a movement of people who have seen a hurt in the community through this thing we call Cancer. And those people are here to help. And those people are Wendie's Wish. And Wendie's Wish is you. So...to start off...meet your riders.

Cameron Foreman

Dorian McCradic

Evan Hibbs

Laine Melikian

One man Media Crew-Davis Emmert