We currently participate in the American Heart Association donation raffle for Jason's place of employment in which 100% of their proceeds go to the charity. Below you will find what we have donated in 2019.

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Left to right: Two sequential Spalted Maple bowls, torched Honey Locust bowl, and a Sassafras bowl. The four images are also originals from Jason featuring honey bees, a damselfly, and an orchid.

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In 2013, 2014, and 2015, we both rode 100 miles in the Ohio State University sponsored charity rural bike tour, Pelotonia. Combined we were able to raise $10,000 over the three years with the help of Jason's employer's donation matching. Due to the generous donations of Ohio businesses, 100% of the proceeds raised go towards cancer research at OSU. This was done in honor of family members that have both passed and survived from cancer in both of our families. 

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2013

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The first year we rode was rough and we definitely overestimated our abilities. We foolishly signed up for the two days, 180-mile long trip split between 100-miles on Saturday and 80-miles on Sunday. Having ridden bikes in the past, primarily mountain bikes, we thought we could handle ourselves on road bikes but our training was average, at best. Our last mistake on that first ride was choosing the hilly path which has a roughly 60-degree incline at one point. We had to stop quite a few times after we made that choice but we prevailed in the end. Unfortunately, Jason ended up in the hospital due to severe nausea and cramping from lactic acid build-up that was roughly triple the normal amount. A good night's rest and some fluids helped but we were both so incredibly sore the next day and the addition of the hospital visit prevented us from finishing the ride. We had to surrender and rode back home on the shuttle bus. Here is a snapshot of how we did. It took us just over 8 hours to bike 104 miles.

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2014 & 2015

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Having learned our lesson from 2013, we chose to stick with the much safer 100-mile route for both 2014 and 2015. We also chose to avoid the hilly route, even though one of the downward hills had us going close to 40 mph that first year (it was a lot of fun). No additional breaks were needed aside from stopping for lunch and snacks along the way. We made sure to bring our own sugar-free drinks both times because we also found out that the constant flow of sugar-filled Gatorade in 2013 was doing us no favors. As you can see in the two images below, we shaved 1.5 hours off both times compared to that first year and averaged roughly the same speed.

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 *All logos were created and are the property of their respective copyright owners *