Open Road Press

As we depart 2014, I’d like to update you on the status of our fundraiser entitled TheHopeLine Tour of 2014 and plug you into a unique opportunity before it’s too late to take advantage of it. If you’ve stumbled upon this webpage randomly or you’re unfamiliar with the tour or the fundraiser, my wife, Debbie, and I bicycled across the country this summer on a self-supported tour to raise awareness and needed funds for TheHopeLine, a nonprofit organization that seeks to reach rescue, and restore hurting teens and young adults. We set a fundraising goal of $100,000. Thanks to generous friends, family, and people who were total strangers before our tour, we’ve raised over $32,000 to date. If you’re one of those supporters, thank you so much for your kindness to young people in crisis.

In each of the past two years, TheHopeLine has intervened in the lives of over 3,000 young people who were struggling with suicidal thoughts. Debbie chatted with a suicidal youth just this past weekend. During our tour, we took roughly 35 chats from the road. Of those, eight were suicide interventions. TheHopeLine deals with any issue that youth are struggling with. However, the suicide intervention statistics give you a glimpse of how severe youth issues are these days, and the type of difference TheHopeLine makes in their lives. Many youth will only open up in an anonymous forum such as TheHopeLine offers them.

Unique Opportunity About to Expire

Almost one-third of our fundraising proceeds has resulted from the generosity of a strong supporter of TheHopeLine, a Midwest dairy farmer who originally challenged supporters of the organization with a $100,000 matching challenge. He raised his match to $225,000 when the initial match was achieved in early December. As we turn the page on 2014, the $225,000 matching challenge will expire. If you have not yet made your pledge of support to TheHopeLine as part of TheHopeLine Tour of 2014, or if you feel compelled to raise your support, won’t you consider doing so right now, before this matching challenge expires? Any pledge made before midnight on December 31, 2014 and paid by March 31, 2015 is eligible for the matching funds, which effectively doubles the impact of your donation. To pledge support, please click here. If you would to learn more about why TheHopeLine is worthy of your support, click here. You may also want to read this blog post, entitled Hope is Not Free.

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To view highlights of TheHopeLine Tour of 2014, including the best photos and blog posts, please click here.