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How the MOB formed...
It all started in August of 2000. Looking back it seems like that was forever ago. Paul Kryzaniak calls his best friend from high school Steve Manor to tell him of a little idea he had for next summer's vacation. You see, Paul and Steve are teachers, which means long, fun, adventurous vacations for the two of them for the summer. But the idea that Paul had this time was far beyond the trips to the West Coast and Hawaii, like they have done in the past. This trip was going to be from the United States Pacific to Atlantic coasts via the high speed, luxury ride of a pedal bicycle.
This little adventure that they dreamed of taking
soon became much larger as Steve told his friends Jason Shimko and Timothy
Broderick about the idea. Jason, known for making things more difficult
than they would originally have to be,
convinced the group that they should ride for a charity. To do something
to benefit the community and to have a great time.
The group then started brainstorming to think of charities that they could
work with. After a little bit of work and brainstorming they decided to
attempt to work with Ronald McDonald House Charities.
After a little
digging and researching Tim met someone at the Milwaukee Country Club who knew
the Executive Director for the Wisconsin Chapter of Ronald McDonald Houses. Tim,
Steve, and Jason then went to gather information about working with them. While there we filled out an application, and the
MOB was
formed. The application asked for the organization name, and having just
listened to the song, Men In Black, by Will Smith, Jason thought of the name,
Men On Bikes.
After working
with Ronald McDonald House Charities for several weeks, it was unfortunately
determined that we could not meet each other's needs. So the process
started all over. The MOB then attempted to work with Compassion
International, Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, and World Vision. These
searches unfortunately proved unfruitful, but eventually lead to our
partnership with Concordia University. Steve, Tim and Jason all attended
Concordia University and were active in Athletics and many other activities.
Concordia is looking to build a field house addition that will have a weight
training facility, aerobic facility, and an athletic training facility.
This addition will be a huge benefit to Concordia's students so the
opportunity to help out this cause greatly interested us.
During that time
we also picked up three other members, Andrea Jones, Celia Powell, and Daniel
Shafer. Andrea and Daniel come from Michigan and are close friends to
Paul. Celia is friends with Steve, Tim and Jason, but especially close to Tim
as they are dating.
Since the initial
meeting with Concordia at the end of March, the MOB. has
worked to raise money for Concordia through sponsorship and is continuing to
work to help have the field house ground breaking started by the end of the
summer. The MOB has also sold over 200 tee-shirts help them defer the
major expense of biking cross country. If you would like to help with
this effort in anyway please contact Jason at jmshimko@yahoo.com
Looking back, it
is easy to agree with the Grateful Dead in saying, "What a long strange
trip it's been." There have been many times that we all thought the
trip would not happen and as we get closer there are many times that we all
wish we could have left yesterday. There is so much more to tell, but if
that were done, I would be forced to kill you...We are the MOB...
written by Jason M. Shimko, 6/1/2001 Click here for more MOB info... Links to other bike pages: One of the people the MOB has met on their trip is
Dennis Guy-Sell. He has his own site at http://home.att.net./~d.guy-sell/index.html http://www.wanderingtheworld.com
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