Great Improvement Since Last October

I think it's safe to say that, after nearly 2 months of 'Thankful,' Chris and I are both in the best shape of our lives. Last semester we trained for and completed a sprint-triathlon ('sprint' is a relative term here, it's nearly 16 miles). This morning we did a makeshift time-trial sprint-tri at the AFC, and both beat our previous times by a substantial margin. While I am currently very sore, I feel fantastic compared to after our race in the fall. We've made many other strides in our training (bad pun, I know). Chris has completed two half-marathon time trials, and last week I completed a century bike ride, 100-miles in a single day. 

Our Service component has kicked into full swing as well. We've been working mainly through two programs, Madison House and Day in a Life. We've established more or less a weekly schedule, and have been able to participate in a nice variety of work- everything from tutoring math in local high schools, clearing local trails, and cooking Saturday morning breakfasts at the homeless shelter downtown. We've made significant progress in this area since my last blog post, and I think, with the consistency that we've been able to establish, we are well on our way to surpassing our target of 50 hours each.

The next and final phase of our project is the fundraising, which we are kicking into gear this weekend. We've had great publicity, with Madison House putting us on the cover of their most recent newsletter, and we will be interviewed on the Saturday for the WINA local news that morning. 

I want to thank everybody so much for the encouragement and support that we've received over the last two months, and give a special shout out to David Aramony, who has been an invaluable part of our team and helped us get this far.

As April 6th is fast approaching, we will be providing more frequent updates on our progress, post a video soon, and hopefully get a few guest posts. Information on how you can donate is posted below, and if you'd like to get involved in any other way, please feel free to send either Chris or myself an email (acs2w@virginia.edu and cpz3yc@virginia.edu) and we'd be happy to find a way to get you involved, whether it be volunteering, running, or whatever else suits your interest.

Madison House serves as the student volunteer center at the University of Virginia. Madison House coordinate volunteers, develop leaders, build community partnerships and promote lifelong volunteer service. Madison House organizes service programs to address the needs of the community as well as the educational and personal growth objectives of students.

Here is a step-by-step process for how to donate:

To Give Directly Online
1. Follow this link to the 'Support Madison House' Page
2. Fill out the required information
3. In the 'Gift Preferences' section, please write "Thankful for 2013" in the Additional Comments or Instructions tab
4. Enter your donation amount.
5. Press Donate

To Make a Gift by Check, Please Send to:

Madison House - U.Va. Fund
P.O. Box 400314
Charlottesville, VA 22907-0314
- Please make sure to write "Thankful for 2013" in the memo line

Please continue to read our blog and please consider donating to Madison House.  


Thankful for 2013.  Thankful for Life.

Written by Alex Shannon