12 Hours of Temecula
How do you ride "12 Hours of Temecula"? Get 305 pro, sport, junior, master, and team racers together in Temecula, California on a cold and misty Saturday morning and fuel them with Rwandan grown Wooden Bike Coffee and put them on their mountain bikes!
Our morning started with the cell phone alarm ringing at 5:45am and plugged in our only coffee brewer, a Mr. Coffee machine circa 1990. We quickly realized we would have to brew non stop to keep the two air pots full of steaming coffee. We also realized the incredible stroke of luck bestowed upon us, cold, cloudy and misty weather forecasted for the entire day! The setting was perfect to promote Project Rwanda and Wooden Bike Coffee.
By 7:00am we were serving coffee to all the racers and their fans (devoted friends and family) as they registered for the 9:00am race. At first everyone was just a little apprehensive; could somebody really be giving away FREE coffee on this dreary cold morning? We gave away the coffee to get people to gravitate toward our tent so they could see the amazing story telling banner and ask us all about Project Rwanda. And gravitate they did, we gave away over 350 cups of coffee throughout the morning and into the early afternoon. We told the Wooden Bike story to hundreds of coffee drinkers that day. By late morning we had several confirmed Wooden Bike coffee addicts sheepishly coming back for their third and fourth refills.
Although the coffee that day at the race was complimentary, we handed out hundreds of cards provided to us by Heidi Morgan at Equal World Coffee telling Wooden Bike coffee fans how to order the bags online. Our biggest success story, a young racer from the UK, Anthony "Ant" White, who was absolutely enthralled with the Project Rwanda story and loved the coffee (he drank two large cups before the race), took second place only 13 minutes behind Tinker Juarez, a certified pro! We like to think Wooden Bike Coffee had something to do with his performance! He is so impressed with the work Project Rwanda is doing that he will be wearing a Project Rwanda jersey at the 24 Hours of Old Pueblo February 14th.
People asked me several times throughout the day how I became involved with Project Rwanda and serving Wooden Bike coffee at a race in the California wine country. I had read about Project Rwanda in Outside magazine months ago and was so compelled, I became involved. Tom Ritchey’s dream was inspirational. Everything I enjoy, biking and coffee, and everything I’m passionate about, helping others achieve their dreams, was Project Rwanda. Then I drank the coffee and my fate was sealed!
What excites me most about working with Project Rwanda is helping to develop the micro loan program and identifying farmers, especially women farmers, to be recipients of these loans to purchase Coffee Bikes. As a woman and former business owner, I understand the power of entrepreneurship. I came from a very middle class family and through business ownership saw most of my childhood dreams come true. The one dream I want most is to help others experience the satisfaction of becoming an entrepreneur and providing for their families. This summer I will be spending several months in Rwanda helping Rwanda women become business owners. And to think…all of this because of a magazine article, a visionary and an amazing cup of coffee.
