Need Some Advice (Thinking of Organizing a Trip for Charity)

[Mavrik]

So next October, I plan on traveling to Prague to get a English-Teaching certification and hopefully spend the following 2 years teaching in Europe before going to graduate school. I'm going to be spending that summer living in Nantucket, MA with one of my best friends from college, Chris, which I'll be working to save up some money for the trip/living expenses. We both are avid mountain bikers and had come up with an idea of taking a month/month and a half off and biking from either Augusta, ME or Nantucket to Jacksonville, FL. We figure were both young and this is the kind of thing not a whole lot of people get to say they've done in their lives. We was also a bit inspired by reading about a Brit, Jason Lewis, who circumnavigated the globe entirely without motors or sails. (www.expedition360.com.

We want this trip to have some meaning however. Chris's father passed away last summer after a long bout with Lou Gehrig's disease, and we wanted to do this to both honor him and possibly either raise awareness about the disease or more importantly find a way to raise money for more research/a cure. I know this kind of thing is done a lot throughout the country, but I do not know very much about organizing charity events such as this. I might be pandering to the wrong crowd here, but does anyone have any ideas about ways I could approach this? Or is there anyone who's involved in charitable work that could give me some tips on getting sponsors for the event? Any help would be much appreciated.

[SeniorFlaJet]

If your goal is to bring awareness to the populace regarding Lou Gehrig's

disease, I know its known by another name, I would suggest you contact the

many organizations in the country that already are involved in seeking a cure for this disease and see if they will assist you in sponsoring your trip. At the least

they can give you advice on how to do it.