Sponsors-

Special thank you to the following businesses for helping make this project possible. If you can find a way to support them, please do so.

Friendliest bike shop in the Twin Cities. Hands down. Grand Performance Bicycles in St. Paul, Minnesota not only taught Dan Ettinger everything he knows about fixing bikes, but they also provided us with a lot of free parts and advice. Click here to hear Dan Casebeer, Shop Owner telling a joke.

Macalester College is a fantastic liberal arts college with a huge heart for helping their alumni. In addition to providing us with great advice, a multitude of connections, publicity, and a laptop(!), Macalester helped Dan realize that the individualized support he received as a student continues well beyond graduation. Click here to see Gabrielle Lawrence, Director of Alumni Relations, telling her favorite joke!

PrintingForLess.com printed 1,000 "business" cards for us! Click here to watch a cute video of some kids we met reading them. Special thanks to Daniel and the rest of the Big Sky team at PFL for being so generous. Next time you need high quality printing and exceptional customer service, please think of printing for less. They're the best.

Peace Coffee is many things: 1) 100% fair trade, 2) bicycle delivered, 3) delicious, 4) humble, 5) generous. The good folks over at Peace Coffee sponsored our jerseys, bibs, and socks, gave us a one pound espresso machine, and will be mailing coffee beans to us throughout our trip! To check out where to buy the good grounds, click here.

Surly Bikes has a great sense of humor and a no-nonsense philosophy about building simple, practical, and bad-ass bicycles. This is the response we got from one of the head honchos over at Surly when we asked them to sponsor the trip. "Dan, We've talked about it and we've decided that your tour idea is weird enough that we'd like to help." Thanks for donating the frameset for Dan's Long Haul Trucker!

According to their manifesto, Twin Six is a graphic revolution in cycling apparel with the goal to be the alternative to everything else. "The gear we pull on is a statement of our style, identity and self. The industry's slow uphill grind to better graphics has turned riders into unwilling billboards, moving color explosions and unfortunate cartoon characterizations. Twin Six has seen enough." According to us, these guys are awesome. Thanks for providing great jerseys, water bottles, socks, and t-shirts. Viva la revolucion!

Amanda Zoss of Zoss Design created our trip logo. Dan met Amanda when she volunteered to design YouthCARE's most recent Annual Report. Amanda is not only incredibly talented, but she's also humble, and a pleasure to work with. If you have a graphic design project, hire her!

****************************************************

Friends-

The following is a list of other organizations/friends/bands that we have had close relationships with in the past. If you want to learn more about us, check them out!

Seeds of Peace - Dan was a counselor at their International Peace Camp in 2004.

The Afromotive - Simon played trumpet for this Afro-Beat group based out of Asheville, NC.

YouthCARE (Youth for Cultural Appreciation and Racial Equality) - Dan's favorite non-profit. He worked there for 2.5 years after graduating college.

Over/Under - Great local band in Minneapolis that practiced out of Dan's basement during their most formative years.

The Callback - Creative cabaret style live radio program focusing on the art, craft, and business of Chicago Theater. We met Kate Parker, the host, on the CTA train. She told us a joke and then a week later invited us to be on the show.

International Canned Beer Month - It's August. Time to celebrate! (Well, it will be again and sooner than you think. Get ready.)

Crazy Crazy- Crazy Crazy is reborn. And it's still birthing, so give it a second. It's not that easy. And there aren't any painkillers involved with this birth.

The Bike Gallery - These folks out in Portland not only bent Dan's fork (well, they fixed it, Delta was the one that bent it!). Thanks for all the help. Without y'all, it'd be a long walk to Charleston, SC.