Pedaling4Paws

Welcome to Pedaling4Paws

Each year during the last week of June, a group of cyclists and animal lovers depart on a Tuesday morning from West Chester, PA on a 5 day, 500 mile charity bike ride to support local SPCAs and Animal Shelters along their route. The event is called Pedaling4Paws.

The 2012 Pedaling4Paws ride is from Tuesday, June 19 to Saturday, June 23, 2012. Is this the year you join us for a few hours, for the day, for the whole ride?

The trip goes through 7 counties in Pennsylvania and 5 counties in New York, and it arrives at the Canadian border in Ogdensburg New York in the early afternoon 5 days after departing. Each year, the founders of the event invite others to join them on the ride and to help raise money and awareness for the SPCAs/shelters. You can see each of the shelters at our donate locally tab or on this overview map. Please follow the ride's progress (or review past years) by visiting the Pedaling4Paws blog and the Pedaling4Paws Facebook page.

The 2012 Pedaling4Paws Print Raffle

New for the 2012 year, Pedaling4Paws is proud to announce a raffle of the print "Memories of Love" by world-renowned artist Juan Vela. See the Raffle Poster for specifics!

"Memories of Love" by Juan Vela

Purchase Raffle tickets at:

Visual Expansion Gallery	Chester County SPCA
Kelly's Sports	Stillman Volvo
Allen Cook's Barber Shop	Rubinstein's
Jester & Saldivar Dentists	Jester Chiropractic
Brother's Pizza, East Bradford	i-Pasta, West Chester
Ski Bum & Bikeline Newark, DE	Tender Touch Gifts
Eagle Animal Hospital	Bean's Bicycles

You can view the print at Visual Expansion Gallery and the raffle will be held at
Visual Expansion Gallery
on Friday, June 1, 2012
at 8PM
during the West Chester Gallery Walk.

The print was framed by Visual Expansion Gallery of West Chester, PA and the framed print is approxiimately 24 x 36 inches in its gold frame and off-white matte. It is an artist proof quality print and comes with a certificate of authenticity. The print will be on tour in April and May to allow people to see it and to buy raffle tickets. Tickets are $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for anyone under 18 or over 65 years of age. Absolutely every dollar that is collected for the raffle will be donated, at the request of the artist, to his favorite charity and one of the Pedaling4Paws benefactors: the Chester County SPCA. Interested, click here to register or learn more about the raffle!

A summary of the raffle and the print can be downloaded here. Once the exact tour dates/locations are finalized, they will be published here as well. Check back frequently!

The 2012 Pedaling4Paws Limited Edition Jersey is here!

Custom created by world-renownd designer, Juan Vela, this Limited Edition 2012 Pedaling4Paws jersey is available for purchase. Use the online form or email jersey @ pedaling4paws.org with your name, address, phone, jersey size and the number of jerseys you want in that size. Jerseys are unisex and 'club' cut (slightly looser fitting). Cost is $50 per jersey with a portion of the cost going to the cause and the rest to the cost of the jersey!

Here's the design as delivered through Juan Vela Studio... Show your support and let us know how many you want!

Why Pedaling4Paws?

In what started as an idea to ride a bike to the Canadian border, Mike Van Ryn and Viktor Ohnjec, members of the West Chester Cycling Club mapped out a 4-day, 465 mile route they planned to follow in late June 2009. They didn’t plan to make the ride a charity event but Mike’s brother offered to contribute $1 per mile to the Chester County SPCA. From that point forward the ride took on a life of its own. Word spread to the local community and donations started to come in. By September, the Chester County SPCA was presented with checks totaling over $2000 from the money collected on behalf of the ride.

In 2010, Mike and Viktor were joined by Gary Bianchini and several other riders who rode with them for between a few hours and a few days. The 2010 donations were over $5000. In 2011, the Pedaling4Paws initiative surpassed their goal of $10,000 and grew both in the number of overall riders (over 20 at various points of the ride) and in mileage (over 500 miles to accommodate visits to SPCAs/shelters). Start planning your calendar for 2012 and future years!

Help us to spread the word! Join a fuure ride, tell local merchants or companies where fellow cyclist and animal lovers live and work and help make each year's Pedaling4Paws event the best ever!

How can you get involved?

Join us on our 5-day ride from the last Tuesday of June each year - for all or even a portion of the ride
Meet us along the way - see the day-by-day route
Donate to your local SPCA or animal shelter
Sponsor the ride directly or through your company
See who is already involved...

Please track us on our blog!

When we start riding, we share updates on our progress through our blog:

http://pedaling4paws.wordpress.com/

We post updates approximately every 2 hours when riding.