Day 14: “If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one.”

Day 23: Twenty-one days left!

I have not been a strong blogger these last handful of days. I'm sorry and I won't let it happen again!

Do you forgive me?

Thank you.

Last time we spoke, my workout consisted of a flag football blowout that catupulted the Mariah Carey Dreamlovers to a 2-0 start! Since then I've had one day off, two five-mile runs and, today, a 15+ mile bike ride across the Mississippi River, through the West Bank and to a Chinese New Year celebration (which was a lot of fun, by the way).

The big 15-miler will be on Wednesday morning.

As far as our collective donation goes, you guys are amazing. Thanks to Dave Emond, Denise and Danny Serio, Huy Tu, Ben Dransfield, Drea Groner, Wayne Everbeck, Joey Adams, Brian Forte, Chris Wooster, Sandy Sanchez, Emily Lancaster, Andy Toth, Adam Hickey, Stephen Curtis, Tammy Wright, Ariana Bernstein, Christina Cipriano, Annmarie Vilkins, Marisa Pizza, Ashley Goldsmith, Meka Buchman and Ashley Gordon. I currently have more than $850 in hand, with another $300 on its way in the next day or so! Because of this I am upping our goal to $1500. If things go well for another day or so, I'm going to suggest we go for a $1750 donation!!

If you remember, we were originally talking about $200 or $300. I can't tell you how excited I am about the gift we're going to be able to make for the students of Akili in my Dad's name.

Of course I'm thankful for the $50 donations and the $100 donations! But the $5 and $10 ones are big too! I know so many of my friends are paying off student loans or volunteering in AmeriCorps and, so -- when you show your support for something I care about -- it means a lot. I thought this Mother Theresa quote was particularly fitting: "If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one."

This hasn't been exciting becuase one person decided to donate $1000 (Though, if you're out there, you will make this quite exciting :-) ). This has been exciting because, in the sum of our parts, we are creating a gift that can make a difference in the lives of children we will likely never have the pleasure to meet, but who will help shape the world in which we exist.