Day 8 Arupt Ending

About 20 miles into the day’s ride I got a call from my wife about a series of storms that came through town packing high wind, rain, and baseball size hail. We suffered significant damage to our home and car so I decided to pull the plug on the ride and come home. I didn't feel right leaving her home alone to deal with this and take care of our kids.

Although the ride didn't end the way I wanted, we did cover over 500 miles in 3 states and raised a lot of money and awareness about the plight of these kids in need in Vietnam. We still have a lot of work to do so any help spreading the word is much appreciated.

I really appreciate all the support and good wishes from everyone. I specifically want to thank my sister for following me around in her car for a week and being my faithful sidekick. Since I wasn't able to complete my goal I was thinking about organizing a local one day ride near my home to complete the journey. If any of you are interested in helping me organize such an event or riding with me that would be great.

our backyard - filled with branches and hail

Day 7 Rest

Big wildfire ahead.

Even the guys in the Tour de France get to rest sometimes. After 6 days peddling over 500 miles in 95-105 degree heat we needed a rest. We drove to Miles City, MT to clean up (first shower in 3 days) and visit some relatives. Tomorrow we head for North Dakota!

Nguyen Thi Bich Tuyen’s father left her when she was very young. She is living with her mother and step father, one older sister and 2 step sisters. When she has step father, her life has become more hardships, stress and suffering. She sells lottery tickets every day. If she can not sell all the tickets for that day, her step father will beat her and will not allow her to go back home until she sold the day’s quota. So some days she needs to go live at friend’s house.

The mother is sells fresh fruits and her step father is hired laborer on small fishing boat. Neither of her parents finished elementary school. They each earn about $1 per day but it is unstable.

Her mother wants to send her back to school but she can not do because their income just enough for their daily food. But her step father wants to send her step younger sister to school than her who also dropped out of school like her. Tuyen wishes that she would become a teacher. It seems that her simple wish is very difficult to be true because now, she has no time and money to study.

To help provide scholarships for girls like Tuyen please visit www.catalystfoundation.org to donate today. One scholarship provides for her school expenses and food for her family.

Day 6 Helena to Harlowton MT

Today was another day of riding through VERY RURAL Montana. We climbed through the Big Bear Mountains including Baldy Mountain at over 9000 feet. I actually preferred climbing the mountain to peddling into the wind though the open prairie. The terrain changed frequently from dry dusty open spaces to tree covered mountains and back to open range. There is a lot of evidence of wildfires and we saw a very large fire outside of Billings, MT. After 8 hours of riding we set up camp at “Dead Man’s Basin”. Not much there except a small lake. My sister (and support driver) was terrified we would be eaten by cougars or bit by rattlesnakes but we all survived.

Starting at the bottom of the hill.

Climbing...
finally at the top!

Going downhill now!

At 9 o’clock in the morning, we visited the family of Dang My Xuan. She was still sleeping but she is not a lazy person, she had worked from 8 pm to 6 am in the morning at the garbage dump. She is 16 years old, a good student but because her father had left her, and her mother falling into debt over 3 years ago she had to drop out of school when she was in the 5th grade. Her father's family spend their waking hours verbally abusing her mother and her to make their life be more bitter and painful. She told us about her family life in tears.

The house is very small. Life is stressful for her. She loves study so much. She suffered when she had to stop studying. She tried to collect recycled material from garbage dump every day to help her mother to pay the debt and have money for food day to day. After 3 years struggling with bad situation and the debt, she is eager to go back to school. “I want to be a lawyer to protect my mother who is always being abused by others including my father and his family members.”

She and her brother share a bike. Many times she had to walk to school to let her brother uses the bike for his work. “I want to eat delicious food and wear beautiful clothes” the girl said. Xuan improves her knowledge by reading newspaper which she collect from the garbage dump.

Her wishes are very simple that her family will have better living conditions. She told us that she does not expect to have a rich family but a happy family. She wants all her siblings to be educated and have stable jobs. And mostly she wants to have a house in good environment out of the stinking garbage dump.

To help provide scholarships for girls like Xuan please visit www.catalystfoundation.org to donate today.

Day 5 Missoula to Helena MT

Start of Day 5

The first day of Montana. We spent the morning doing laundry and getting more supplies and rode all afternoon. We rode along the interstate 90 for most of the day. Nice wide shoulders with lots of room. The traffic wasn’t too bad. They put in speed limits in Montana since the last time I was here. That helps. We camped tonight at a beautiful reservoir outside of Helena, MT. We didn’t get there until after 10pm so I learned how to set up a tent in the dark. There were about 12 deer nearby and they didn’t seem to mind our presence at all.

our "hotel" for the night

our great view!

Thi Men is 12 years old, her father has died and her mother remarried and left her when she was very young. She has been living with her only brother and grandmother who has one arm paralyzed. They have never been to school. Men just has joined a private class where a retired teacher has tried to help the poor children know how to read and write. Men collects garbage every day to pay for her learning. She wishes that she could go to school to learn Vietnamese and play with her friends at the dump site.

Their "house" has a dirt floor with thatched roofs and walls but mostly made out of gargabe. The have to rent this "land" at the dump every month. Men and her family eat, drink and sleep with the millions of flies every day.

“To know about knowledge is better than being uneducated.” said the grandmother, but they do not make enough money to provide an education for her grandchildren. Their desperate situation creates limited time, no money and no choices for an education or vocation. Her older brother shared with us, “I have to work from 8 pm to 4 am. Then sleep until 9 am. From 9 am to 3 pm, I have to help my grandmother to dry the waste material such as plastic. And I sell it to the buyer. So I have only short time to take a test or study. Then I have to go back to my work at the garbage dump again. I have no time to learn another trade.”

They all have to work together to earn money just to survive day to day. He wants somebody to support his younger sister to go to school - to insure her of a better life in the future. She is a great source of his hope!

To help provide scholarships for girls like Men please visit www.catalystfoundation.org to donate today. One scholarship provides for her school expenses and food for her family.

Day 4 Lewiston, ID to Missoula, MT

morning view

Today was a beautiful day of riding. We rode along the Snake River the entire way. Very flat roads with trees. I was so happy to see some shade for the first time in 4 days. Good thing too because it was well over 100 degrees today. I saw a thermometer that said 98 degrees in the shade. I was hydrated like King Neptune so I didn’t get dehydrated but man it was warm. Because it is so dry it does cool off quickly at night and that helps.

I spent some time looking at my maps of Montana and North Dakota and we are going to make some changes to the route. Today we are going to go to Helena. From there we will follow Highway 12 to Miles City Montana. We will then hook into I-94 through North Dakota. This will take us through Dickinson, Bismarck, and into Fargo.

big hill
I'm thirsty!

A family with five children- they are all illiterate. This is the family of little Hang. She is 11 years old. Her oldest brother is 12 years old and the two younger sisters are 10 and 8, and the youngest brother is 7. Her parents collect garbage and the children also help every day. Hang said she would like to go to school and collect garbage too.

A few years ago they had built a little shack with leaves and wooden poles in a part of garbage dump, now the garbage company has taken back that "land". They had to tear down their house and be "house keepers" in another house at the dump so that they have sone shelter. Imagine yourself living in a garbage dump - in someone else's "home" in the dump - a house literally made out of garbage from walls, roof to the floor.

Her parents know that education can help their children improve their living condition, but they can not provide for their children because they have a daily struggle just to find food. Her father has tuberculosis, one of her younger sister is also sick. They are in debt because now two people cannot work - of about 800,000 VND ( about $50). For many persons, $50 can be spent in one trip to the local store. But for Hang's family, it would be a treasure considering the family does not earn more than $ 1 a day. Hang lives in total misery - noone can go to the doctor, work or school.

To help provide scholarships for girls like Hang please visit www.catalystfoundation.org to donate today. One scholarship provides for her school expenses and food for her family.

Day 3 Walla Walla to Lewiston

Better day today. It was still hot but less windy. We rode through the hilly wheat fields of Eastern Washington. Lots of open spaces with the occasional house. I went up this monster hill right before Lewiston (after 85 miles of riding) and then had a 4 mile descent into town. Lewiston and Clarkston form the border of Washington and Idaho. It is a college community along the Snake River and very pretty. Lewiston has a nice downtown that reminded me of Northfield. We camped next to the river and got up and going early the next morning.

climbing again...

alongside the Snake River.

When we arrived to visit this poor family at their little house without a gate, all the village people are curious and want to hear our conversation. Nguyen Thi Thuy’s house is close to her neighbors, we could not push them away as we had wanted while we interviewed her. We asked a little boy hold up another thatched wall so it wouldn't fall on us as we spoke. He teased her “She likes to get married." The little girl was very shy, she bends her head very low. Her face looks so sad.

Her parents always work far from home. Her father does some fishing work and can see his daughter only once every 2 months. The grandmother stays at home to take care of the girl. When Thuy goes to school she comes home feels very lonely. School is very far from her house, she needs to walk over 1 hour to go there. She was raped when she was 8 years old. The guy had attacked her when she was coming home from school - which makes she feel fear and does not want to go to school anymore.

The teasing from neighborhood children to Nguyen Thi Thuy was shocking...she is so young and in her mind it does not do anything to make her feel better about herself. She is very quiet and shy when we visited her. It is so hard for her to face and overcome the worst experience of her life. On one hand she really wants to go to school, on the other hand she’s afraid this incident will happen again on the road to school.

We want her to believe in her education and get her a bike!

To help provide scholarships for girls like Thuy please visit www.catalystfoundation.org to donate today.

Day 2 Skamania, WA

Start of Day 2

"We stayed in a beautiful camp site in an old growth forest by the Columbia River. I knew today was going to be warmer and it didn’t disappoint. The temps were near 100 degrees. I rode along the river through Eastern Washington in some of the most desolate area I have seen. No towns, gas stations, homes for miles. Just dry grass and lots of sun, heat and wind. I could only peddle about 10 miles per hour into a 30 mile per head wind so it was slow going. We made it 72 miles in 7.5 hours. I think I need to adjust my thinking and just go as far as I can as long as I can and then drive to the next rest stop. Tomorrow is supposed to be another scorcher as we leave Walla Walla."

It's hot..
...dry...
...and I'm tired!

Happy to this for the kids...please donate!

Trang Thi Thuy is Thanh’s neighbor. Now she is only six years old, but she had been raped when she was 4 years old by the same boy that raped Thanh too. Her parents are gone often looking for work; her father for days at a time, and her mother gone all day. Her siblings have to sell lottery tickets on the street. So Thuy is the only one to look after the house which is very small, dark and falling apart.

For a long time she didn't tell her parents what had happened to her. Her mom only saw the bruising when she was bathing her one day. Now the whole village knows her sad story.

Children in this family have less chance to go to school because the little girl shared, “My mother does not agree for my sisters and brothers to go to school because she has no money." Her parents have asked her siblings to sell lottery tickets to earn money for their daily living. When I asked her about her hobbies, she told me: “I like to go to school."

We want to help Thuy - we want to give a little hope to this family for a better future.

To help provide scholarships for girls like Thuy please visit www.catalystfoundation.org to donate today.

Day 1 Astoria to Portland

"I am pretty nervous as we start. I wonder what I have gotten myself into. Knowing that it is for a very good cause motivates me a lot. The day is perfect for riding in Astoria. Cloudy and cool. I expected a flat easy stage along the Columbia river bottom but somebody put the coast range mountains in there since the last time I was in Astoria. Lots of climbing. We left at 8am and arrived in Portland a little after 4pm. I was beat from climbing and the rush hour traffic was bad so we called it a day, had a great dinner, and drove to our camp site for the night."

first climb

Each day that Scott "blogs" we will also highlight a story of one of the girls living in Kien Giang so you don't forget why he's doing all of this.


To Thi Thanh is 8 years old. She has two older sisters and one younger stepbrother. Her parents divorced and her mother left. She hasn't even seen her own mother for long time. He father has since remarried, Thanh has been living with her father, sisters, grandmother, stepmother and stepbrother. The back of their old house is very old and the wood is rotten but her family has no money or materials to repair it.

Her father is gone 1-2 weeks at time finding work as a fisherman. her stepmother is gone all day trying to find work. So the grandmother takes care of them when she is feeling well. Most of the time, Thanh goes around village and make friends with neighbors, especially when her older sisters are in school.

When she was only 6 years old a neighbor boy raped her. Because she is so young it is very difficult to ask her again what happened for her but she was able to name the boy. After her family reported it to the police, he ran away, but after a few months the police did arrest him.

Thanh does not go to school yet because she has no birth certificate (therefore cannot register for school) and the family does not make enough money to send her. She wishes that she could read and write. She wants to go to school.

To help provide scholarships for girls like Thanh please visit www.catalystfoundation.org to donate today.

Route & Mileage

Day 1 Oregon/Washington
Astoria, OR to Scappoose, OR – 74 miles
Scappoose, OR to Vancouver, WA – 23 miles
Vancouver, WA to Skamania, WA – 35 miles
Total – 132 miles

Day 2 Washington
Skamania to Paterson – 145 miles

Day 3 Washington
Paterson to Walla Walla – 70 miles

Day 4 Washington/Idaho
Walla Walla to Lewiston, Idaho – 99 miles

Day 5 Idaho
Lewiston to Lowell – 96 miles

Day 6 Idaho/Montana
Lowell to Missoula, MT– 122 miles

Day 7 Montana
Missoula to Lincoln MT – 77 miles

Day 8 Montana
Lincoln MT to Loma MT – 138 miles

Day 9 Montana
Loma to Fort Belknap MT – 108 miles

Day 10 Montana
Fort Belknap to Glasgow – 113 miles

Day 11 Montana/North Dakota
Glasgow to Williston, ND – 144 miles

Day 12 – North Dakota
Williston to Minot – 125 miles

Day 13 – North Dakota
Minot to Rugby - 66 miles
Rugby to Esmond - 34 miles
Esmond to Fort Totten – 43 miles
Total – 143 miles

Day 14 – North Dakota
Fort Totten to Pekin ND – 57 miles
Pekin to Cooperstown ND – 35 miles
Cooperstown ND to Page ND – 40 miles
Total – 132 miles

Day 15 – North Dakota/Minnesota
Page ND to Georgetown MN – 46 miles
Georgetown to Hawley MN – 35 miles
Hawley to Pelican Rapids – 30 miles
Pelican Rapids to Battle Lake – 43 miles
Total – 154 miles

Day 16 - Minnesota
Battle Lake to Long Prairie – 61 miles
Long Prairie to Willmar – 63 miles
Total – 124 miles

Day 17 - Minnesota
Willmar to Northfield – 132 miles

Total miles – 2054

In the News!

Here's a few links to some articles that have been printed:

northfield.org (Minnesota)
Asian American Press (Minnesota)
Daily Astorian (Oregon)

And one from Northfield News:

PARKER BIKES FOR A CAUSE
Northfielder plans bike trip to help raise funds for Vietnam school
By Lisa Gulya, Staff Intern

NORTHFIELD -- Piles of trash fester in the sun. Vegetables rot. Maggots hatch. Diapers steam.
For more than 300 children in southern Vietnam, this garbage dump is home. The euphemism "landfill" falls short here.

During a March visit, Northfield resident Caroline Ticarro-Parker learned of these children who cannot attend school, scavenge for recyclables all day long and risk being bought by sex traffickers. Government officials contacted her to help. Caroline decided to raise $40,000 through the Catalyst Foundation, a nonprofit organization which she co-founded to serve Vietnamese youth. The money will pay for the construction of a four-room school, textbooks and teacher salaries. Caroline's husband and Catalyst Foundation co-founder, Scott Parker, decided to attract pledges by mounting a 2,000-mile bike ride from Oregon to Northfield.
Scott starts his two-week ride on Aug. 17 from Astoria, Ore., and he plans to be back in Northfield on Labor Day.

He bicycles frequently, often leaving the car at home in Northfield to cycle the 42 miles to his St. Paul workplace. With all the miles he's racked up, Scott feels physically ready.
"I don't think of this as work," Scott said. "Though I'm a little nervous about climbing through the Rocky Mountains." Scott's sister, carrying food and extra bicycle parts, will drive the route with him.

In Vietnam, more than 20 percent of people live in poverty, according to a 2004 estimate by the CIA World Factbook. A typical poor, rural family in southern Vietnam earns less than $400 annually, Scott said. As of Friday, the Parkers had received more than $7,000 in donations for the school. The Parkers hope to build the school on government-donated land before monsoon season begins in November.

"We could have just as easily said, 'We're doing this project, please donate money,'" Scott said. However, he thought biking could spur people to think, "If this guy's committed enough to go ride his bike 2,000 miles, then I can write a check."

Scott is prepared for the weather on the ride, whatever it may be. "If it's as hot as it was last week, we'll take it real slow," he said. But, he said, one thing will urge him to keep up his pace: his daughters. "I'm going to be missing my kids something ferocious," Scott said.

Donations can be made through catalystfoundation.org, or sent to the Catalyst Foundation at 710 St. Olaf Ave. Northfield, MN 55057 or online at www.catalystfoundation.org.

Scott will blog about his trip on the Catalyst Foundation Web site.

-- To comment call 645-1116 or write editor@northfieldnews.com

Biking for Hope - We Need Your Help!

I am writing to you to let you know of an adventure that I will be taking next month and to ask for your help. As all of you know, Caroline runs and organization called Catalyst Foundation that works with orphaned, homeless, and impoverished children in Vietnam. The foundation was started in 1999 after we adopted our daughters from Vietnam. Over the past seven years Catalyst has worked with thousands of children to provide funding for food, housing, transportation and scholarships for school. I am very proud of her work and am always touched by the stories of the children she works with.

Recently, Catalyst has identified a new group of children that desperately need help. There are hundreds of children living in a garbage dump outside the city of Rach Gia in Kien Giang province. Kien Giang is along the southern coast of Vietnam and near the Cambodian border. The children are living day to day off of whatever they can find to eat or sell from the dump. None of them go to school. To make matters worse, because of their impoverished condition, and close proximity to the Cambodian border, these children are extremely vulnerable to human traffickers who are looking for children to work in the sex trade in Cambodia, Burma, and Thailand. Daily, traffickers visit the dump looking for victims. Little girls often between the ages of four and eight are targeted. They are frequently taken to a nearby hut and raped to see if they are “suitable” to become prostitutes. I know it is hard to believe that this is happening in 2006 but human trafficking is one of the world’s fastest growing industries and Southeast Asia is its epicenter. Each year thousands of women and children are sold from Vietnam. These victims are usually the poorest of the poor in a country where the average annual income is less than $400 a year.

The story of these girls has touched me so deeply that I feel compelled to do something to help. Catalyst Foundation has set up a scholarship program for the children of Rach Gia. For $120 a year we can sponsor a child with food, clothing and a school scholarship. This will get them out of them and give them some hope for the future. We initially had funds for 20 scholarships. When word got to the kids that scholarships were available, 300 children came to apply. I have decided to go on a fundraising bike ride from Astoria, Oregon to Northfield, Minnesota to raise funds for these kids. It is my goal to raise enough funds for all 300 children and also build a school for their community. Because the dollar goes so far in Vietnam all this can be accomplished for only $40,000. I will be riding a little over 2000 miles in 18 days from August 16th to Labor Day.

If you would like to help us with this project there are several ways to do so.

1) Help sponsor the ride. Either sponsor by the mile or a set amount. I am doing all the peddling, all you have to do is write the check. Catalyst is a registered 501(c) 3 non-profit agency and all contributions are tax deductible. Many employers will also match employees charitable contributions so be sure to check if this is an option for you.
2) Join me for part of the journey. I would love company riding or following along in a support vehicle with food, water and supplies. I would hate to be stuck alone in Montana or North Dakota without any help. My route and daily mileage plan is posted on the Catalyst Foundation website www.catalystfoundation.org
3) Spread the word. Tell your friends, co-workers, or community members about our trip. I would be happy to come and speak to any groups about our projects as well.

I know this is an ambitious undertaking. I will be riding between 100 and 150 miles per day but I am doing it because I believe that children are not disposable. No child deserves to live in a garbage dump. No child should live in fear of kidnap and rape. No child should be sentenced to a life in the sex trade. But for a twist of fate these children could have been my children, or me. I feel an obligation to help. I hope you will join me.

Thank you.

Scott Parker