help out a friend with cancer!

i took a little break from filing and brazing yesterday to drive tony, lucy and little oscar pereira to the airport for a weekend trip to utah to help with a fundraiser for their friend jeff bates who has been fighting skin cancer for a couple years now. i had a chance to meet jeff a couple of years ago on a mountain bike trip just as he was diagnosed with cancer. he has worked in bike shops and ridden mountain bikes in utah for a long time. this weekend in salt lake city they are having a fundraiser where they are raffling off a sweet single speed built by this guy.

please check out the website for jeff’s fundraiser and donate, buy a ticket or just send jeff some good energy. information can be found here: http://www.jeffbatesmf.org/

also in the vein of building bikes for a good cause, the alice awards in portland this past weekend was the third year in a row that ira ryan cycles has donated a frame and fork to the auction to raise money for the bicycle transportation alliance in portland. the bta lobbies for bicyclists and transportation alternatives. in the past, the lively auction for the ira ryan bike has made me proud to build bicycles that are used every day for daily trips in and around the city.

thanks!