Christopher Holshek's latest update for Travels with Harley

Apr 5, 2016

Dear Friends and Fans,

The National Service Ride will begin at my alma mater in New York State.

As the book introduction says: “Often, the longest of journeys circles back to the place where it all started, where the traveler discovers something that was there all along but awaited validation by experience.” On the 5th of May, he will do just that – closing one circle to open another.

Beginning at my alma mater that afternoon at Washingtonville High School, the native of New York’s Lower Hudson Valley who recently returned to settle there for the first time since he graduated in 1978 will begin another journey around the United States – this time to pass on what I’ve learned about citizenship, service, and engagement in and beyond America and take the book’s broad-based message on the road

Open to anyone to join for as long as they like, from Cinco de Mayo to the 4th of July, the Ride follows a clockwise path around the United States. Stopping at venues including Atlanta, GA, Houston, TX, Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA, Denver, CO, Chicago, IL, and a number of smaller towns and cities in between, it features interactive discussions in schools, bookstores, and other places for Americans who have served and sacrificed in all walks of life to tell their stories to younger audiences, in order to encourage them to community, public, and national service and promote a dialogue of national unity, as well as help pass the baton of generational leadership.

A list of venues can be found on the project website, continuously updated this month and connected up with routes likewise to be listed, until the Ride starts. Holshek will tweet updates and specifics on meeting points and times for take-off as the Ride progresses.

The intent of Ride fits perfectly with the intent of the Service Year Alliance and other partners. Chaired by retired Army General Stan McChrystal, the Service Year Alliance envisions a future in which a year of full-time national service is a cultural expectation, a common opportunity, and a civic rite of passage for every young American. It is the leading effort in the United States to improve citizenship by giving every young person the opportunity to serve in one of an array of areas, including health, poverty, conservation, or education. By encouraging young people to do good work and solve problems starting in their own communities, they also become better Americans.

Additional among a growing coalition of partners include the Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge, dedicated to helping American youth learn more about citizenship, the Alliance for Peacebuilding, and the United Nations Association – National Capital Area, which is arranging most of the venues. GoodWorld, a highly acclaimed crowdfunding initiative for non-profits that has gained the attention of the President of the United States and Forbes magazine, is another. Its unique social-media based platform enables small, personal donations to hundreds of non-profit charity and advocacy organizations of choice – by simply using the hashtag: #donate.

The Service Year Alliance, GoodWorld, and the other partners provide clear ideas and pathways for young citizens to join or contribute to the Ride’s partner or other service organizations, as well as for older folks to help them take their own journey to find out who they are and what they’re about through service to others.

Remember: I’m not asking for donations. The Ride, in fact, is not funded by anyone or anything other than book sales – in keeping with the project’s theme of community-basing, crowdsourcing, and bottom-up change. It’s not so much about power to the people as the power of the people. So spread the word.

This is going to be as big as people want it to be. Perhaps we’ll do it every year – not just because there’s an election this year, but because, as I say in the book, America is in and of itself a journey. We’ll start off in the hundreds, perhaps the thousands, and see how big a dent we can make in this universe of ours.

Find out more on the project website (www.nationalserviceride.net) and through associated social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest; hash tags: #TravelswithHarley and #NationalServiceRide.

And spread the word!

Thanks.

Best,

Chris