Merit Academy

A few years ago, right before our 650 mile journey, I had the chance to visit a local school called Merit Academy. I was able to talk about what we do and try to raise some money for Bridge of Love. Recently we were contacted by a teacher at the school, Mrs. Moody, and asked to speak for her class. This opportunity is a dream come true to me. When I was 12 and living in South America, an Englishman came and spoke at my school. He was riding his bike for two years around the entire world! It was inspiring. When Kenton and I did our trip we tried to speak at schools because I wanted to inspire young kids like I had been.

Merit Academy is a pretty awesome school. The class we were asked to speak at is a service class! I wish I had been able to take something like that in High School! I asked the kids about the class and they said that the school requires students to do a service project or to take the class. What a great curriculum!


Tanner and I went to the class to present. We shared information about who we are and what we do. Our main goal was to teach the kids that: 1. Everyone has something they feel passionate about which can be used to serve others. 2. Service is not always easy nor is it convenient. There are drawbacks and trials will arise which one will have to push through because... 3. Service is worth doing and needs to be done. The rewards, intrinsic and extrinsic, that come from serving others makes the difficulty more than worth it. Also, as human beings, we have the responsibility to help others and lift the collective burden of the world to make it a better place.

We loved the presentation although we weren't sure if the kids did. I have a hard time reading teenagers responses, it made me feel old. Mrs. Moody contacted us a few days later and said the kids LOVED us. That made us feel good. She invited us back again and I was able to go present again to another class. After this presentation one of the students came up and asked how he can get involved. I got his info and we are going to talk to him soon. It was edifying to see how the things we have been doing are inspiring other young people to serve.

Tanner and Mason at Merit Academy

Push Race Results

The Push Race team. We were sad that Kenton wasn't able to make it because we had a lot of fun.

Well I would say an update on the Push Race is a few months overdue.

Back in August our team participated in Provo's first ever Longboard Push Race. We were approached by Recyclops who was in charge of recycling and garbage for the event and wanted to sponsor a team to participate in the race. There were two different races happening. A one mile individual race and a five mile team race. Since the prize for the individual race was $2,000 everyone on the team wanted to compete in both events.

Tanner speeding along with Scott right behind

The individual race ran in heats, with the top five on every heat progressing to the final race. I am happy to say that each team member qualified for the final race. The team race was scheduled right before the race for individual finalists. About four teams were signed up to compete and we were confident that we could win. Our confidence must have scared off all the other teams because none of them showed up for the race, and we won by default. I was a little disappointed that we weren't able to showcase our team skills in a competition but when we were handed our prizes I couldn't complain.

All day the events had run pretty smoothly, with enough time between the heats for competitors to peruse the booths and stands set up by local longboard shops and charities and enough space on the track to race safely. The last race was a little disappointing. Previously the qualifying heats had 10 racers. The final race had about 25 competitors which really crowded the track. Depending on placement in the qualifying race competitors were given different positions on the start line...it was crowded.

The race began and we were off! Due to the crowding placement was hard to establish. Sadly Danny and Ben Smith crashed into each other and both went to the ground. They quickly got back on their boards and made up for lost ground. Ben ended up getting 5th place with Danny close behind. None of us won the $2,000 but we had a lot of fun competing. The event was well done and I think a lot was learned about how to run a Push Race. We are looking forward to competing again next year.

Three of the team at the start line

Ben and Danny's dad came to cheer us on.

Our prizes. Despite the win by default we are pretty excited.

The Push Race

Big news to all living near Utah Valley. This Saturday is the first ever push race in Utah. The event is hosted by Jaseboards and looks like a blast!

What is a push race you might ask. Well it is basically what it sounds. It is a race on flat terrain with boards that are propelled only by the rider's pushing. This particular event will have two races. There is a one-mile  race and a five-mile team relay race.Prizes will be awarded and the winner of the one mile race wins $2,000. The race only costs $20 which also gets you a t-shirt and  sunglasses.

The event starts at 4:00 pm this upcoming Saturday in the North West Utah Valley University Parking Lot. The parking lot provides a 1/4 lap track and races will be run in heats. The event will continue till about 10:00 that night and has other activities like tarp surfing, vendors, and concerts so even if you don't want to board you can come support everything else! The hope is to have about 200 racers and 3,500 attendees so come and have a party!

The purpose of this event is more than just having longboard fun and frolic. The event is also intended to help some great local non-profits like UVU Enactus and Help International gain awareness for their ongoing projects.

If you want to learn more about the push race you can see a news article here or visit the Facebook page here. You can also sign up for the race here. Our team will definitely be there helping to support this wonderful effort and we look forward to seeing all of you there as well!

Longboard Helps: Sliding

From new team member Danny Smith comes a little of his wisdom and expertise on an aspect of longboarding that can help take you to the next level....sliding. Foot-braking will only get you so far and may loose you "cool" points (as well as the bottom of your shoe). So here we have it...

Danny's Sliding for Beginners

My brother Ben doing a heelside slide

Who - Any longboarders ready to take longboarding to the next level!

What - sliding is the act by which longboarders achieve Nirvana. Or if we’re listening to the physicist it is when the wheels loose full traction and the wheel is not only spinning forward, but “sliding” crossways across the asphalt. It is a beautiful sight and an even more invigorating feeling.

When - In the morning, after brunch, throughout the mid-afternoon and even in dreams.

Where - In the steepest canyons in Utah, across the flats of Texas, in the middle of a dance combo, or right in front of your girl to impress her.

Why - What’s all the hullabaloo about powersliding? Well if you haven’t noticed there are only so many hills that you can ride without burning through the soles of your shoes. Sliding provides an alternative to buying new sneakers for every downhill session. A longboarder’s progression can only go so far without the skill of sliding.

How - Everyone has their own style of learning to slide, but I’ll share my experience. As I was riding I would get the feel for powersliding by placing my hand on the ground with an old work glove

covered in duct tape which acted as a temporary sliding glove.

Once I was comfortable with that I started trying to do a standing heelside 180 slide. This did not involve the sliding glove, but rather was a slide starting from my normal stance and ending in fakie stance while standing up. This picture below is the middle of a standing heelside 180 slide.

After I mastered the heelside 180 slide I began experimenting with speed checks (a quick slide that slows you down but doesn't stop you), front and backside slides, and more. Just focus on the basics at first. In my opinion though, the best way to learn is to just try it. Wear a helmet and when you cut up your elbows and knees just get back on and keep trying. There are countless instructional videos if you need visual instructions, so I’ll finish by giving you a one word sermon - COMMIT. If you don’t throw your whole weight into the slide it may end with a crunch (your body hitting the ground). COMMIT to the slide.

Check out Ben doing this awesome toeside speed check!

Cause for Hope

Well the team has been talking and we have decided that with our new adventure coming up we would like to reach out and help another charity, Cause For Hope. We are excited about helping this charity and would like to explain a little more about them.

Cause for Hope's mission is to be the most effective organization in helping families in developing countries escape the clutches of multi-generational poverty and achieve lasting, sustainable self-reliance. We offer many services, but the differentiation of the foundation is found in the mentoring services we offer to those families we serve. Meaning…we assist in business development, we teach vocational training, we assist w/ job placement, we occasionally do micro-loans, but the key element is the mentor assigned to each family, local employees of the foundation who commit to assisting these families. This is done with personal one on one visits in their homes or businesses 2-3 times monthly generally between 10-14 months. In this way we can assist them with family and business budget, savings, debt elimination, re-investing in their business and other basic habits needed to break the cycle of poverty. Generally the most common feedback we receive has more to do with the individual customized assistance of the mentors than any other class we teach, and business we help them develop or job they receive. The most rewarding feedback we receive has to do with breaking the cycle of poverty when our families say…”we were in poverty, as were our parents and their parents before them, but our children will not be in that same situation.”

Many of the people Cause for Hope helps are in Latin America. Just like Romania was near and dear to me from my time spent there on my LDS mission I also feel close ties with Latin America, as do other members of the team who served their LDS missions in countries like Ecuador. From the age of 11 to 14 my family lived in Chile and I have to say that those years were very influential to my development and life. They really shaped the person I am today. I am proud that we can be helping an organization as wonderful as Cause For Hope, and I am excited to be helping people who I called my neighbors in a place I called my home.

Longboard For Love has really enjoyed our association with Bridge of Love these past few years with our 650 mile California trip and Dance-Off Contest. You can find out about what they do in the "Charities" tab. Even though we now turn our sights to help Cause For Hope we will still leave a link to donate to Bridge of Love in the "Charities" tab if you feel so inclined.

And Then There were Four....

With this new endeavour Longboard For Love is expanding our team a little. As you saw from the application we sent to Guinness World Records we hope to have six people. I am proud to introduce the two newest members of the team which brings our numbers to four. They both wrote a little bit about themselves below.

DANNY:

My name is Daniel Smith. I’m named after Daniel in the lion’s den. My friends call me Danny. As far as I know I don’t have any enemies, so they don’t call me anything. Since the time I was a wee lad of 16 years of age any time my friends asked me what I wanted to do the answer was (and is) “let’s go longboarding!” I feel free on a board. And it’s the only way I can impress the women. I’m a full-time student at Brigham Young University, pursuing a mechanical engineering education. The three things I love most are 1) God 2) My family 3) Longboarding or food (it’s a tie). Life is SO good.

TANNER:

Hello. My name is Tanner Bennett. I was born in the one thousand and ninety third year of the current era. I was born on a cloudy, rainy day. All I remember of my birth was that when the doctor lifted me up to give me the sacrificial spank on my hindparts, a ray of sunshine parted the clouds and rested upon my face, illuminating my eyes and being. That was when I knew that I was destined for greatness. 

Mason happens to be my older brother. What anyone did in the world preceding this one to deserve him as a brother exceeds human comprehension. That should give you a little hint of how cool I am. When Mason first crashed his longboard into a parked car, it was me who our grandmother tried to make rub ointment onto his wounds. When Mason, first tried to bomb Fairway Drive all the way to the bottom, it was me who was following his tail on Roxanne (the first longboard we ever owned). Longboarding is what we do, and by golly we do it well.

When Mason did his trip across California, I was happily serving the great people of Ecuador as an LDS missionary and even though I didn’t get to do the trip with him, I had the greatest experience of my life there. Now it is time to resume my place in world of longboarding. It is time to don once again my helmet of safety and take up my board of long length and help raise money for good causes around this good green globe to better the lives of the inhabitants therein. This is my cause. That is my quest. Heck ya.

World Record

We are going to set a world record. Early last month Kenton and I submitted an application to the

Guinness Book of World Records. Here is the application below. We hope to hear back from Guinness World Records by March and then, if we are accepted, we will set the record in May.

Application:
A team of longboarders, Longboard For Love, want to set the farthest distance traveled by skateboard in a 24 hour relay. They will be riding, relay style, along Bear Lake bike trails until time runs out. A support bicycle will follow the active boarder with supplies such as water and first aid. The team will carry a GPS that will track the miles traveled during the allotted time, as well as tracking mile markers on the trail. 

The support bicycle will also have a bike computer attached to track miles traveled as well. Longboard For Love is doing this as another fundraising attempt for local charities. The team founders, Mason Bennett and Kenton Durfee, recently completed a month long skateboard journey along the California coastline and raised over $7,000 for a Utah based charity organization, Bridge of Love, which helps orphaned Romanian children. This money was used to pay for a tutor and computers for the orphans. Bennett also collaborated with friends in New York to do a Skateboard Dance Competition. Funds raised from the dance competition were donated to Bridge of Love. The hope with the relay is to be able to raise funds for charity, as well as spread popularity and awareness for the sport of long-distance skateboarding.

It is anticipated that the team will consist of no more than six members. We are aware that there currently is a record for the farthest distance traveled on a skateboard in 24 hours by one person. Andrew Andras holds this record and traveled 261.8 miles in one day. We don't want to challenge his record but instead want to make a similar record. Instead of a solo race we want to do a relay. We believe by switching out boarders every hour or so we will be able to travel significantly further than Andras as well as establish a similar record that other longboard skateboard teams will aspire towards beating.

Dracula's Dash for Hope 2014

This was another fun year of running for Bridge of Love's annual 5k race, Dracula's Dash for Hope. I am happy to say that I ran much better this year than last year. I even medaled and got third in my age group! After four years of running cross country in High School and not being very good, this made me feel pretty happy. Here are Jamie's instagram pictures of the race. It was a fun event this year. Lots of volunteers came to help out and the race had a fairly good turnout. Next year we hope to see even more of you there!

One Year (and a Few Months) Later

I had hoped to write this post exactly one year from the completion of our first trip. Unfortunately due to a busy life schedule I couldn't find the time. Better late than never. Here is a little review of what is going on with Kenton and I, as well as Longboard For Love.

Life has been crazy this past year. A few days after finishing our longboard journey I went back to Utah and married my sweetheart Jamie. We have had a wonderful year since then. Almost immediately after getting married we moved to Davis, California to research at the California National Primate Research Center. After working there a few months we moved back to Utah where I picked up my schooling again and Jamie started working. School has been crazy. Currently I am trying to pack a full years worth of Organic Chemistry into one summer (...I have dreams where I am studying chemistry...or taking exams...terrible dreams...) as well as preparing two papers for publication based on the research I did last summer. Life is good.

Kenton went home to Arizona where he worked with his dad's business and tried to find true love. Soon after he went back to BYU Idaho where he continues work on his business degree. He has since been blessed to find love and was recently married to an enthusiastic and adorable young lady, Alexis. They are the cutest couple and I am so happy for the both of them. She is up at school with him and they are just studying away. Life is filled up with school...school seems to be taking the most of our time and energy.

As far as Longboard For Love well....between new marriages, jobs, and school it has been difficult to plan out another trip or even organized our schedules to decide when we want to go again. Things are in the works though. I am going to do a short trip in celebration of the completion of my final exams. I just submitted an application to the Guinness Book of World Records for another journey we hoping to do. We won't give details yet but it will involve a relay of sorts with a larger team of people coming to Longboard For Love. We will be doing it to raise money for charity again. The big details still need to get hammered out and when/if Kenton and I find time we will do that.

Just wanted to keep ya'll updated. Thanks for reading!

Computers for Romania

Check out this sweet article

about students at the LDS Business College getting more computers for the children of Bridge of Love (Podul Dragostei). The business students are learning to refurbish old computers that are just lying around and then donating them to the children of Romania.  Huzzah for an education that keeps giving. This will make a huge difference in the education and futures of the Romanian children.

It is really cool what people can accomplish when they get an idea and follow through with it.

Read the article here.

A Good Man

Kenton and I happy
to be hanging out

Throughout my life my cousin Kenton has been one of my closest friends. Each summer my family would drive to my mother's ancestral home in Arizona. There Kenton and I would get into all sorts of boyhood shenanigans camping, climbing trees, swimming in the irrigation ditch, swinging on hammocks, etc.

Gathering eggs and catching chickens

When Kenton and I were about 14 or 15 years old, we went to a summer camp together. During a break I was a little bored and I saw Kenton's journal. He let me take a look at it so I started flipping through. I found an entry he had written a few days before. In it he wrote that one of his heroes was....me. I stopped reading and sat up, frankly shocked. I got my journal and showed Kenton an entry I had written in my journal, where I wrote about my hero...Kenton. We had a memorable moment as we sat shocked and flattered that the person we looked up to though so highly of us as well. Afterwards I was thinking of the irony of the situation and I thought, "You know what. I am right. Kenton is the better one, but I want to live to be as good as he thinks I am." 

When planning our recent longboard adventure I thought long and hard about who I would like to have with me. Who would actually follow through on such a crazy adventure? I thought about it and suddenly it came to me...Kenton! Kenton was the perfect choice for so many reasons. I knew that if Kenton said he would come, then Kenton would stick to his word and he would follow through. I knew the trip would get hard and we would want to quit, but Kenton is one of the hardest workers I know and I knew that he would do all he could to push himself and push me during the hard times.

Building boats to float down
 the river on our camping trip

Another reason I asked Kenton to come is that Kenton is the nicest and happiest people I know. I am often very sober minded, but Kenton always has a smile on his face. Just being around him helps me be more cheery. We weren't always happy and didn't always get along on the trip, but Kenton's sterling example and happy disposition helped me set aside whatever petty thing was bothering me (like maybe we were lost) and apologize or figure out solutions. Kenton's happy attitude was vital to our trip.

Kenton sacrificed so much to do this trip. He was taking summer classes WHILE ON THE TRIP! We had to buy him an ipad and stop at every library we found so he could do homework. I am sure he sacrificed the quality of his grades for the trip. He gave all this up for people he doesn't even know. Kenton has never been to Romania, he has never met any of the kids we helped out. Despite all of this he sacrificed a month, lots of personal funds, grades, and personal comfort to go on this crazy adventure. All to support his crazy cousin and help people he hadn't met. Kenton is so full of charity and love.

Grown up and building
a camping shelter

The most beautiful thing we experienced on our longboard trip was the kindness and giving attitude of others. People who donated. People who gave us something to eat or a place to stay. Newspapers who spread the word. People who gave encouragement. Out of everyone who gave to the trip I think Kenton gave the most. He really is my hero and I look up to him in so many ways. I called Kenton a few days ago to talk about our next longboarding adventure and we ended up chatting for about 40 minutes until I had to go to class. I am glad to have someone so happy, so hard working, so giving, and so kind in my life.

Kenton recently got engaged and I am so proud of him. I hope his fiancee knows how lucky she is because she is marrying a good man, my cousin and hero, Kenton Durfee.

Up to our waists in mud

Guess we haven't really grown up that much.

Just Dance

Well, we have a big thank you to Yasmeen! She organized an phenomenal event in New York. The Dance-Off Competition was a huge success. All the proceeds from the event went to Bridge of Love, for which we are grateful. Yasmeen was also able to get donations from a few organizations like Blue Sky Longboards.

Yasmeen sent me some pictures (you can see some really cool ones here) and the event looked like a ton of fun! I really wish I had been able to attend but distance prevented me. Instead Bridge of Love sent a representative who lived in the area.

I am looking forward to next year's dance contest. Maybe we should organize one here in Utah too.

Thanks once again to all the New York boarders. It really is awesome to see great people who want to use longboarding to help others, who want to have a good time and help others out at the same time.

I put a few pictures below but, you really should check out all the pictures from the competition. The dancing looks good and the fall leaves are beautiful. Click here to see them.

These are the winners from the event.  Ian, in the middle, got first,
Steven Vera on the left was second and Jason T. Quinn on the right won  third.

Just chilling and watching the event

Everybody excited about it all

What We Will Do Differently

Longboard For Love is trying to look forward to next year. However, in order to adequately plan for the future we need to look back on what we learned from the past. Let me tell you, from our recent trip, we have learned quite a lot. We did our best and got advice from a lot of people, but we were not totally prepared for the trip. After a month on the road we feel pretty confident in our knowledge.

Our "Final Map" plan. We were so excited when we
finished the plan....and we threw it out the first day!

Mapping it out
Last trip I spent months and months going over the route again and again. However, all I had at my disposal was Google Maps. I had to redo the route about eight different times. Then...after the first day we had to throw the whole map out the window. It failed. Thankfully Kenton brought his phone which had a GPS. All we were able to do was each night we planned out what we could do the next day. We only had a few days planned out at a time. I said before I had no idea where we were going, only south. That is the real truth. Next time we will make a rough but realistic plan, and definitely bring a good GPS with a great battery.

Ben Smith, who went across Utah on his longboard, had a good idea. His support drove the route in a car before he did it on a board. This showed them problem places and allowed them to plan. I think this is a good idea. However if we had done this before we might not have actually done our trip. Some of the roads were sketchy. Although maybe we would have planned a better route instead.

Rob Thompson who first
used Longboard Larry's
trailer

Self Supported
We really wanted to do our trip self-supported, meaning we carried everything with us. We can now say we did it... but we aren't sure we will do it again. The backpacks did save us money on cars and gas, but they really slowed us down. Days where someone took our backpacks for us we went about twice as fast, and we enjoyed life quite a bit more. I still suffer from chronic lower back pain as a consequence to my heavy backpack and the repetitive motion of pushing the board.

Backpacks are probably a no go. We may look into the longboard trailer idea from Longboard Larry. The best idea, in our opinion, is to have a support vehicle.

Press
Now that we have done a trip we will definitely contact the press earlier. That helped us out a ton. More people offered to let us stay a night in their yard or home. People donated more, people honked and cheered on the road which helped our moral. Getting the press earlier will really help

Enjoy the Journey
If we do another long-term trip, we will try to "stop and smell the roses" a bit more. With the backpacks we
were slowed down a lot. In order to make our goal of 650 miles we were always in a hurry. It was stressful. Our schedule was typically as follows:  7:00 wake up, hit the road by 7:45, 8:30 take a break, take a ten minute break every hour afterwards, at about 7:00 pm we would start looking for a place to stay. At nightfall hopefully we were ready to sleep, and then do it all over the next day.

On a future trip we may try to be less ambitious with our daily mileage, or more realistic, and thus be more free to take joy in the journey.

Homework
Kenton was enrolled at the BYU-I Business School during the trip. He was doing all he could online. This was stressful for Kenton. We will plan better and take a hiatus from school during the trip.

Relay Race
In the future we will probably do some form of a relay race. This divides into two trains of thought. One idea is to make it competitive. A couple of teams going 24 hours in shifts. Maybe a 250 mile race with one member of your team going at all times.

Reminder: Dance Contest!

Everyone in the New York City area. Do not forget about the Dance-off Contest on November 9th. Be there or be square. 

Dracula's Dash For Hope 2013

My sister Sydney, my mom, my beautiful wonderful wife Jamie, and me wearing my hobo jacket Jamie hates

This year I was able to attend Bridge of Love's annual 5k, Dracula's Dash for Hope. Instead of helping at the booths, like I did last year, I actually ran the race. I was able to convince some of my family to come which was a sweet experience. Before I went on my mission to Romania I would run each morning with my mom so it was nice to run with her again. 

I'm not a fast runner and I haven't been running much lately so my time wasn't that good. I got 32 minutes even. I remember thinking, "Oh awesome! That is the same time I used to get in high school!", then I remembered that I used to get 20-22 minutes. It was a disappointing moment in my life to see I've slowed down by ten whole minutes.

My family are pretty fast runners though. My mom won third place in her age category. My little sister placed as well. She came to run for my dad who had a last minute problem come up and couldn't make it. Since Sydney was registered as my dad she won first place in the Men's 50-59 age category! We had a good laugh about that and let the race officials know about the mix up. Bridge of Love still gave her a medal which was nice. 

Great morning and great event. Here are some more pictures below.

Laurie Lundberg thanking everyone for coming to the race

The center of the activities

The start line for the kids race

We Can Dance If We Want To...

Good news for those of you in the New York area. Longboard For Love is helping to sponsor a longboard dance-off contest on November 9th. We have been in contact with Yasmeen, a member of the Longboarding New York City group. She is putting on the event and all of the proceeds will go to Bridge of Love in order to help the orphans in Romania.

Information about the event:

• Skaters will perform a combination of freestyle and dance tricks for a total of 60 seconds. The tournament will be set up as a one on one (one will win, one will lose), tournament style. Through cheers and jeers, the audience will decide who moves on to fight for another day! 
• The last two standing will do a dance off of 30 quick seconds, to show off their stuff!!
• Hippie jump contest will follow :)
• Helmets are recommended! 
• Join at your own risk!
• Registration is $5, the money earned will be donated to charity!

We hope that those of you who can will attend the event. I know that it says helmets are recommended but I strongly suggest wearing a helmet anyway. 

Those of you who don't know about dancing on a longboard are in for a treat! Dancing is basically complicated footwork on the board. Since longboards are large there is room enough to step around, move, shake and boogey. The tricks are really cool to see and so dance competitions are not uncommon. Here are some photos from a recent competition done in Berlin. You can kind of get the idea. 

So everyone sign up and go to the event! It will be a lot of fun and you won't want to miss out!

Here is a video showing what is possible with longboard dancing.

A Goal Realized

Here is the picture hanging up in my apartment right now.

A few weeks ago Kenton and I both received a package from Bridge of Love. Inside it, was a letter and a picture. The letter was from Laurie Lundberg telling us about the visit to Romania that Bridge of Love made this summer and the picture was from the kids in Romania. 

The letter said that when Laurie spoke to those in charge of the sister organization there, Podul Dragostei, they informed her that, just recently, three teachers had offered their time on a volunteer basis as tutors for the kids. Isn't that amazing! It is wonderful that they are giving of their time. It was decided to let them continue teaching on as volunteers since they already have a paying job and are happy to help.

The foster parents told Laurie Lundberg that it would be nice for the kids to have computers and computer classes. It would be helpful for their education and help them have the skills needed to find jobs in the future. Bridge of Love felt that this fit nicely with what Longboard For Love promoted so the money is going towards a teacher and a computer lab for the kids.

Laurie told the kids and foster parents about our longboard trip which will help make the computer lab possible. They were extremely grateful. To show their gratitude they sent a picture of the kids and had the kids sign it. I was very touched and it is now hanging up in my apartment.

This whole endeavor and this blessing would not have been made possible without the help of all of you. Kenton and I did the trip, but it wasn't enough without the generosity and love exhibited by all who gave of themselves in some way. Bridge of Love, and the children in Barlad Romania thank you all.

I had hoped to help other people and possibly inspire others for good through this trip. Instead I find myself greatly helped by being inspired, changed, and uplifted by the loving giving example I saw through this adventure. Longboard For Love, especially Mason Bennett, wants to thank you all as well.

Huzzah for Humanity!

The Hero's Trail

Confessions

            I am a bibliophile. I simply love books. I recently realized just how many I have when Jamie and me moved into our new apartment in Provo. We brought down boxes full of books, and we only have one bookcase! After three days of organizing, and reorganizing and sending books back home we finally figured it out.

            There are books from many different genres and subjects. Storybooks: Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Hobbit,  and My Side of the Mountain. Personal favorites include: Dante's Inferno, Frankenstein, Les Meserables, East of Eden, The Neverending Story. We have biographies about Gandhi, William Wilberforce, Michelangelo, The Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt. Myths and Fables with Beowolf, The Poetic Edda, Grimms Fairy Tales, and Anderson's Fairy Tales. Books on adventure and discovery in Kon-tiki, The Lost City of Z, River of Darkness. Religious books like the Bible, the Book of Mormon, Quran, Popol Vuh, The Apocrypha, Book of Jasher, Baggiavad Gita, Dammapada, Confession's of St. Augustine. Philosophy and thinking with Kierkegaard, C.S. Lewis, Viktor Frankl, Buscalia, and Taylor Caldwell. Poetry from Shel Silverstein to Shakespeare's Complete works, to Mihai Eminescu, Robert Frost, Paublo Neruda. History with Gibbon's Rise and Decline of the Roman Empire, and Gardner's Art through the Ages.

           

 Merlin and Barron

            While the list is long it represents a very small number of my favorites that made it into the bookcase. Books and reading really mean a lot to me. One book that has been important to me is by T.A. Barron. In second grade I was starting to feel that the Bailey School Kids books were becoming too simple and repetitive. I branched out to the harder books and found myself intrigued by The Lost Years of Merlin. I read it and loved it. I fell in love with the characters and the world which was created in the pages. The morals and love of nature spoke to me.

In his sweater. Photo courtesy of www.soentpiet.com

            In the years following I devoured every book Barron wrote. I love how he helped teach me the impact a good person can have on the world. I followed the Merlin series to when it was five books. Then eight, then eleven. Until they were reprinted as a series with new titles. When I was 17 T.A. Barron came to Utah with his new book, The Hero's Trail. I took my little brother with me to go see him. We drove about a half hour to the auditorium where Barron would be speaking.

            We sat there nervously waiting for this great man, this creator of worlds in which we had spent so much time, to appear. He was announced, and up the isle he strode, skipping up the stage steps...he tripped! My brother and I looked at each other in amazement. "He's human!" I thought. "He wears funny green sweaters and trips sometimes!"

           

Small and Simple Things

            As I listened I thought to myself how he was another person, just like us, who does wonderful things. That was the message he spoke about. That each of us walks a trail in life, the Heroes Trail, and by the strength of our character we can surmount obstacles and make a difference in the world. The book, which I bought and had signed, shares stories and quotes about people, mostly young people, who have made the world a better place.

            I look back on my life and see this as one more learning experience that led me to who I am and why Longboard For Love did what we did. As normal people we wanted to make a genuine difference in the world, and maybe, at the same time, our example could ignite the spark of charity in anothers heart. Just as Barron helped do the same in me.

        
    "This world of ours is a truly wondrous place-full of great mysteries and great contrasts. Chief among those mysteries, I am afraid, is how a world with so much beauty and richness could also be home to greed, arrogance, and intolerance. How can a world that produces abundant fruits, inspires timeless poetry, builds lasting friendships, and creates chances for us to realize our dreams also contain the horror of war and religious hatred? That is the greatest challenge of our time, my friend; to tip the world's scale, to find hope where there might be despair, to help all living creatures live together in harmony" -T.A. Barron

            "Just as the smallest grain of sand can tilt the scale, the weight of one person's will can life an entire world." - T.A. Barron

Favorite Photo

We have posted a lot of pictures from our recent trip on the blog and our Facebook page. The photo below is my favorite picture from the whole adventure. It was taken by a photographer from the Orange County Register. Early one morning we met with the news, we shared our story with them and then they took a lot of pictures. The "photo-shoot" lasted a few hours but they were really flexible with our schedule and just followed us in their car and took pictures of us on the go.

As we were talking to them I had my hands on my board. The photographer snapped a picture and I thought nothing of it. Later in the newspaper article I saw it and realized she had noticed what I wrote on the bottom of my board. The caption for the picture in the article says, "Mason Bennett, 23, of Utah carries a hand-written question on his long board, "Tell me what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

I am glad she picked up on that. I wrote a few things that inspired me on the bottom of my board. My hands are covering up the spot where I wrote a name for my board "Impetus" and on another spot I wrote a line from a poem as well, "Home is behind, the world ahead, and there are many paths to tread." All of them wore off by the end of the trip except for this inspiring question:

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

photo courtesy of Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register

Dracula's Dash For Hope 2013

It is that time of year again! Bridge of Love is hosting its annual 5K race, Dracula's Dash For Hope. I went last year and it was a ton of fun. Here is the information from the Bridge of Love website about the race. I hope to see you there!

Dear Friend of Bridge of Love,

We are excited to announce our Dracula’s Dash for Hope 5k and 1/2-Mile Kids’ Run on Saturday, October 12th at the Cottonwood Complex, 4400 S. 1300 E. in Salt Lake City.

Dracula is out to change his reputation of doom and gloom by helping to raise donations for abandoned and

Photo of the 1/2 children race from last year

disadvantaged children in Romania. This is our 6th annual charity 5k and it keeps getting better every year!

For 2013, we’ve added a shorter run for kids and planned fun Halloween-themed changes. There will be refreshments, medals, and prizes. Costumes are encouraged but not required.

Visit www.bridgeofloveromania.com to pre-register online or for more information about Dracula’s Dash for Hope. Race-day registration and packet pickup is from 7:00 – 8:30 a.m. Please sign up early!

The 1/2-mile run for children under age 10 begins at 8:30 a.m. The cost is $10 and all participants will receive a medal.

The 5k starts at 9 a.m. sharp. The cost is $25 through Oct.1st or $35 afterward. Medals will be awarded to the top 5k runners in each age group. All participants will be given a race t-shirt and entered in a raffle for prizes donated by local businesses and volunteers.

While not required, we encourage race participants to make an even bigger difference by asking family, friends, neighbors and co-workers to sponsor them in the race by making a donation of any amount to Bridge of Love.

We are giving away a 32" LED Color TV to the person who collects the most donations. All others who donate $200 or more will receive a $20 gift card.

More information to assist runners who choose to seek out race sponsor donations will be provided following their online pre-registration. You can register for the race by clicking here.