November 26, 2009
St. Ignatius educators plan coast-to-coast cycling fundraiser
Melea Burke/Valley Journal
English teacher Tim Marchant is part of a team planning to bike across the country next summer for the Mission Scholarship Foundation.
Valley Journal
ST. IGNATIUS — Next summer, two members of the St. Ignatius School faculty will put their muscles where their mouths are in a transcontinental fundraising bike ride for the newly formed Mission Scholarship Foundation.
The rubber hits the road May 28, when Superintendent Gerry Nolan and high school English teacher Tim Marchant plan to take off by bicycle from the coastal town of Anacortes, Wash., on a 3,500-plus-mile trek to Bar Harbor, Maine. They’ll be joined by Nolan’s daughter Katie, who will graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in May, and her friend Mary Elmstrand. They’re asking for per-mile donations to build a scholarship fund to help more Mission High School graduates get a post-secondary education.
“Essentially what we’re trying to do is make it so more of our kids are able to go to college,” Nolan explained.
For most Mission students, the main obstacle to a college education is just getting a foot in the door, Nolan said.
“We live in a high-poverty area … if we can just get some of our highly-qualified, deserving kids in the door (to college) … they’ll have a higher chance of success,” he explained.
When Nolan and several other members of the local community and school staff formed the Mission Scholarship Foundation, they wanted to come up with a way to show their commitment to the program while encouraging others to donate.
“So we thought, ‘what can we do to capture the imagination of donors?’” Nolan explained.
Nolan approached Marchant, an avid cyclist and 20-year veteran of teaching at Mission, with the idea of a cycling trip in June. A coast-to-coast biking adventure and helping to raise scholarship money is an ideal combination for Marchant, who said he’s always wanted to ride across the country.
“As a cyclist, it’s certainly something that’s always appealed to me,” Marchant said.
Dubbed the Northern Tier by the Adventure Cycling Association, this particular route averages 50 to 70 miles a day and will take the team across northern Washington, Montana, into Canada for a couple hundred miles, then through North Dakota and Minnesota and along the northern U.S. border to the coast of Maine. They plan to arrive in Bar Harbor by Aug. 5, 2010, which should give the group three or four days to drive home in time for Nolan to make the August school board meeting.
“I ride a lot … there are certain things that are fairly daunting about it,” Nolan said.
In the first few days after leaving Anacortes, the team will cross several mountain passes. And when they get past the mountains, they’ll have to deal with wind, tornado country and bugs — mosquitoes are rampant along parts of the route, Marchant noted. They plan to have a support vehicle, which will lighten the load as far as carrying all the equipment they’ll need for camping and repairs. Still, “it sounds like a real challenge … It’ll be a lot of learn-as-you-go,” Marchant said.
While the Foundation hasn’t set an exact fundraising goal, the group has high hopes that the venture will create a large endowment.
“This is a one-year drive ... This is a one-time thing,” Nolan said.
“If we could help one kid a year, it’ll all be worth it … We’d just like to help more than that.”
Interested donors can visit missionscholarshipfoundation.org or contact Gerry Nolan at gnolan@stignatiusschools.org or 406-745-4420. |
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