Shout out to the Sunshine Coast

Never being from the lower mainland when I returned from my winter semester in Halifax I began to look for support for Agents of Change in my home community on the Sunshine Coast. This job was made easy by a few people and businesses who I would like to take the time to thank now.

I met Bob Hoy when I walked into his Marketplace IGA in Gibsons with a pamphlet about Agents of Change. I told him how hungry we twenty-one cyclists anticipated being and he immediately jumped on the sponsorship bandwagon. Although our deadline for leaving was quickly approaching, Bob made arrangements so that we could get the most amount of food sponsorship possible. For about a week and a half, Bob and his staff put up with me showing up on a daily basis to sort through the offerings of the day, and one of them would go on a mission to see what they could pull from the stores shelves to feed hungry cyclists. By the time I left for Vancouver to join the other cyclists for an orientation, food was packed into every nook and cranny of my small Toyota. Each time I put on the brakes on my drive from the Sunshine Coast to Vancouver, I had to duck for fear of being hit in the head with a can of soup at hand from one of the 30 flats Bob and IGA had donated. My personal favourite find at Market place IGA in Gibsons was stuffed eggplant in a can, something I never touched but was thoroughly enjoyed by the vegan contingent of our trip. Pasta and pasta sauce never got old on the road (or maybe it did, but certainly not while I was still pedalling), and through a mix of wonderful donated non-perishables and grocery store stock ups we absolutely never went hungry. Bob is an example of the type of community leader Agents of Change is working to foster. My most sincere thanks go out to him and his team for the incredible last minute sponsorship they provided us.

I called Ken Stokolas the owner of 24-7 NRG bars, where human life is more important than shelf life, about a week before our departure after hearing from my neighbour, Eric, a member of the Pole to Pole team, that Ken had provided Pole to Pole with his delicious organic energy bars. Ken got back to me almost immediately providing me and my team with one hundred of his homemade and packaged bars. Packed into panniers or breakfasts for support vehicle drivers, these bars were a fabulous alternative to the overly processed norm for energy bars. Ken, thank you and your wife so much for your donation to our team. Also big thanks to Paul at Spin Cycles for his help with bike questions and more, and to Tim Turner of The Sea to Sky Outdoor School who helped me promote this cause by letting me speak at a talk he organized.

These members of my community are fabulous examples of everyday people and businesses being part of The Solution. They are truly agents of change. Although I personally was unable to ride past the Californian border due to a serious accident I am positive that my teammates wouldn’t have been as successful without the support we all received from the Sunshine Coast.