Did You Know A Bike Can Make You Smarter?

Let your mind drift back dear readers, through the misty thickets of time, over the sand dunes of memory, across the wide ocean of...oh forget it, my poetry tank is low this morning.  

Remember how you used to get to school back in your vibrant youth? 

Did you travel...

• by horse drawn carriage?
• on a Vespa with your scarf trailing and your hair artfully windblown?
• on the back of a family milk cow that was forced to do double duty by feeding you and transporting you?
• in the back of a Bentley with the faithful family chauffeur; a mysterious man with a dropping mustache, sad eyes and a cap?
• on a yellow school bus filled with children carrying tuna scented brown lunch bags?

 Okay, time to put your thinking cap on for a brief moment because this next part is serious...I know, weird huh?

However you traveled dear reader, you probably didn't walk for miles like many students in far off Thailand.  Nearly 1 in 4 students drop out of school in the transition between primary and secondary school.  Just like in the U.S., in Thailand primary schools are located in most villages, but secondary schools (jr. high) are often several miles away.  Children from poor families often walk the 2 hours each way.  So, for lack of a ride to school, these kids often drop out during 6-7th grade and essentially lock in their family's poverty for another generation.



ThaiCycles is working to break that cycle by providing bikes to schools who check them out to kids during the school year.  Read more about it here.

For the next 4 days it is as easy as pie to donate to this great cause because you can to Tipping Bucket.  Tipping Bucket features worthy causes and urges you to donate $1 to "change the world or your money back!"  

Today, I'm giving up my happy hour Sonic for the cause.