Every year many of the riders participating in Race Across America take this opportunity to make this a fundraising event. Last year, I rode Race Across the West, solo, and I raised $7,000 for the high school seniors for seven ($1,000) scholarships to help the students prepare for their new lives on campus or living away from home for the first time.

This year, I am honored to be racing with my friend George Thomas, “the voice of RAAM”, all the way across the country from Oceanside, California to Annapolis, Maryland. George and I raced RAW, 2021and had a great race. Because George is the announcer at the finish line of RAAM, we will be leaving with the RAW team riders (four days earlier than RAAM teams) so that George can still be at the finish line for all the incoming riders, while still competing in an official RAAM, which will be the 30th anniversary of his first RAAM finish.

My fundraising goal this year is to raise $10,000 in scholarship money, giving 10 ($1,000) scholarships to help the kids( girls and boys) get ready for their freshmen college year. Whether they need dorm room furnishings, a laptop, books, transportation or help with any other costs that incur so quickly once a student is on campus. Hopefully this money can help the kids with a successful start to their new world.

Borrego Spring High School is a small, rural high school. I do weekly volunteering at the high school as a representative from Soroptimist of Borrego Springs, and it never ceases to amaze me how welcoming and genuine the kids are. There are a lot of hard working students that really have no idea about the lack of equity in their education.

There are only 350 K–12 students in Borrego, and as public schools are funded by # of attending students, Borrego schools miss out on so much funding and that just leads to a very deprived school; technology is sorely lacking; teachers and counselors are hard to keep and educational opportunities in general, for the students, are sadly lacking compared to their big city peers. Rarely do they have art, drama or choir; basic required curriculum is about all that is offered. Except for a couple of AP class options, students have to take AP classes online. Administrators spend a great deal of time grant writing to get money that big school administrators take for granted.

Borrego Springs is a very isolated place. Big city kids generally have many local college options. It is a two hour drive to any college, junior college or trade school from Borrego Springs. This is such a huge logistic and economic barrier for these kids. The majority of the students come from low income families and the hardships of commuting to college, or finding affordable housing near a college can be hard to overcome.

In spite of the educational hardships, these kids persevere and there are many good things they do get from school. Most of the kids have known each other since kindergarten and they all look out for each other. Everyone knows everyone and there is a lot of love between the kids and all the staff at the school.

The community of Borrego Springs is very supportive of the high school and there is a lot of opportunity for community interaction with the high school students as there are so many community events. The importance of this scholarship money to help kids get started needs no explanation. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I appreciate any donation you can make! 100% of proceeds goes to scholarships!

EVERY DOLLAR GOES TO CHARITY! siborregosprings.org

1. Scroll down to “Funding education and Dreams”

2 Click on “Funding education and dreams”

3 Click on “Donate today”

4. Click on the “soroptimist scholarships” drop down menu

5. Click on “Race Across America scholarship”

All donations to Soroptimist International are charitable, and a receipt will be provided. Thanks so much for your support!

– Sylvia Maas