IN THIS ISSUE
	Meet the 2007 PEPY Ride Team How Can YOU Help? PEPY Ride Switzerland  Spotlight: Making a difference Protect the Earth. Protect Yourself. Featured Sponsor- are you a winner? Upcoming PEPY Events

Dear PEPY Friends,

The news doesn't stop there.  In this issue, we also  have a new PEPY Ride team to introduce you to and lots of stories to inspire you to make a difference, both in your own life, in the lives of those in Cambodia.  But don't worry, even with all this news we're still the same grassroots group of fun-loving folks.  Come and see for yourself.  Join us in December or March in Cambodia!  

Meet the PEPY Ride 2007 Team

How Can YOU Help?

Have artwork, pictures, paintings or anything you want to exhibit in a PEPY Art show?  The Pink Cow in Tokyo is graciously helping organize a PEPY Art Show and fundraiser to raise money to benefit the construction of the PEPY Friends School, which is already underway.  We need your artwork or photographs by December 15th.  Email pepychiba@gmail.com for submissions or more information.   Know of any organizations doing great work in Cambodia?  The 2007 PEPY Ride Team is looking for groups to visit during our ride across the country.  If you know of an organization, school, orphanage we should stop in and visit, please let us know!  Email cambodia2007@pepyride.org   PEPY desperately needs laptops with wireless internet capability.  Can you donate an old laptop...or even a new one?  Email teamleader@pepyride.org.   Notice this month's prize - a super cool Pressure Pack?  We are still looking for more great prizes!  Got anything you can donate?  Let us know: volunteer@pepyride.org   You can now download PEPY's Bike-to-School flier at http://www.pepyride.org/downloads/bike-to-school-flier.pdf. Give it to friends and family!  During this holiday season, encourage your loved ones to give bikes to Cambodian children as gifts to friends and family!   Do you have experience writing grants, or know of any that PEPY might qualify for?  Let us know: teamleader@pepyride.org

PEPY Ride in Switzerland

PEPY's first European Ride supporting the Bike-to-School Program by Andre du Plessis & Peppi Stunkel   The weather forecast for French-speaking Switzerland wasn't good for the weekend of September 15 to 17: showers, plenty of cloud cover and some strong winds.  But we were praying to the weather gods, and in the end the PEPY Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) Bike Ride started on a Friday afternoon with no rain, a light breeze and even a hint of sunshine. The team - Steve, Peppi, Jim, Christine, Barbara and André - met Pippa and Jean, the trip coordinators, right in the centre of Geneva on the lakefront to get their bikes and set off on our 180km trip around Lake Geneva.  The first Swiss PEPY Ride was organized by Peppi to raise funds for the Bike-to-School Program in Cambodia... read more about it on our website! Heading out of Geneva - first crossing the River Rhône where it leaves the lake, then past the World Trade Organisation Headquarters and various United Nations buildings, with great views back to the Old Town and Geneva's famous Jet d'Eau - we knew it'd be three long days before we were back again.  But cycling along the Lake and in the picturesque Swiss countryside kept our spirits high, and stopping every hour or so for tea and cake kept our energy levels up. Adventure struck mid-afternoon when almost simultaneously the clouds opened - soaking us to the skin in a few short minutes - and we came across a gaping chasm in the path we were supposed to take - unexpected roadworks requiring us to take an unexplored alternative route.  Our route took us through Lausanne on an exquisitely beautiful lakeside path ­ catching glimpses of the mountains on the other side of the lake bathed in the warm, amber glow of the setting autumnal sun.  We passed Vevey - the headquarters of Nestlé, Montreux - home of the annual jazz festival, past Chateau Chillon - the inspiration behind Byron's poem, "The Prisoner of Chillon", and on to the border town of St Gingolph where Jim and André decided to take a dip in the lake. On the second day, our team crossed from Switzerland into France mid-afternoon and then made a swift line for the town of Evian, home of the word-famous mineral water.  There was time for hot showers, short walks in the town and a bit of a rest before dinner in a small French restaurant.  We discovered a small nightclub in a narrow side-street of the town where they quickly discovered who could dance and who couldn't!  Barbara's energy and Steve's great moves were an inspiration to us all! The following morning the team woke to the gentle drumming of rain on Evian's rooftops:  a direct contrast to the spectacularly sunny previous day.  Prayers to the rain gods hadn't worked on that day, it seemed.  After breakfast the team took a vote to continue cycling notwithstanding the rain, and so - with waterproofs on and a determined spirit - the team headed off, with short breaks spent huddling under trees, drinking hot cups of coffee to keep warm.  Lower clouds took away the distant views of the Jura mountains that would lift spirits, but as the team cycled through pretty farm countryside they knew that they were raising money for kids in Cambodia who have lives much tougher than theirs: anything the team could do that day to help they would do.                                                       Despite the wet weather and cloudy skies, we cheered as we cycled back to where we had started.  Bewildered Genevoise looked-on as we jumped up and down and hugged each other in the pouring rain.  Even if they ignored our prayers for the last day, the weather gods couldn't stop our joy at what we had done.  We had completed the 180 km trip around Lake Geneva - and raised about USD2,300 for PEPY (Still to be partially matched by Electronic Arts!)!  That makes any wet day a brighter one.   (Please note: Peppi, PEPY, Papi, and Pippa are all different people/organizations and completely unrelated.  We too find this coincidence humorous, but can not be blamed for any confusion caused by this unusual mix of interesting P names!)

Spotlight: PEPY Volunteers Making a Difference

Here at PEPY, we KNOW one person can make a difference, because we see it everyday with PEPY volunteers around the globe.  Julia Davies, former PEPY Rider has been using her talents to make a difference for over a year and a half.   After getting her Yoga teacher's Diploma via the Kevala centre in the UK, she started teaching yoga in Hamamatsu, Japan, at the same time as she was fundraising for the first PEPY School.    She decided to combine her love of Yoga and her love for PEPY, designating one class a week as a fundraiser for PEPY.  With the generosity of local Japanese landowner Mr. Ogura, who donated space for the project, Julia asked for a minimum donation for those taking the class, giving the proceeds to PEPY.  Over a year and a half later these Thursday night classes are still going strong, raising both awareness and funds for education in Cambodia.   Julia estimates that she raises about 200 dollars a month for PEPY.  "It's just a small but steady flow... and I love doing it!" says Julia. "Hopefully the PEPY class will just run and run, generating a small source of revenue and drawing awareness. All publicity I get, such as a recent front page article in the local paper, hopefully brings further attention to PEPY."    Julia (who is pregnant with her first little one!) will be teaching classes in Hamamatsu until Christmas and will resume, with baby in tow sometime in April.  Email her for more information at julia@pepyride.org or see her website for details www.yoga-in-Japan.com.   PEPY would like to thank Julia Davies and all those in her yoga classes for their support for PEPY and continued proof that one person can make a difference!!!  Thank you Julia!

Protect the Earth. Protect Yourself.

Reflections on Sustainability by Alice Beban, PEPY Rider 2006   The word ‘sustainable’ means different things to different people.  What sustains you?  It might be financial security, true love, enough food to eat on the table.  Sustainability has been officially defined as ‘meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generations’.  I like the Native American definition: ‘preserve the world for the 7th generation’.  This means that we need to think wider than our own security, love, or dinner plate; it is a call for all of us to acknowledge the damage we are doing to the earth, and start to repair it.    The damage that industrial agriculture is doing to the earth affects us all, because even if we are not farmers, the choices we make about what food to buy and where we shop has an impact on farming practices.  Throughout the USA, New Zealand, Japan, and many other countries, huge industrial farms which aim for high crop yields at the expense of the environment have become the norm.  This contributes to global problems such as climate change (through methane emissions and energy use), but it is in poorer countries like Cambodia where the impacts are most felt.    Global systems of trade allow the richest countries to subsidise agricultural products, while poorer countries like Cambodia are forced to join the free-market economy, and remove all barriers to trade. The result: the world prices for agricultural commodities are pushed lower and lower, so that none of us are really paying a fair price for food. Poor people are pushed to join the export cash-crop market, but they must move on to marginal land in order to grow their own food to survive. The pesticide sprays and monoculture planting for cash-crops have a devastating long-term effect on soil health, and farming on marginal land leads to erosion and increased deforestation.   The use of synthetic inputs (fertilisers and pesticides) in Cambodia reached a high level in the 1990’s, and even after the Cambodian government banned dangerous pesticides, many class I toxic chemicals are still used without instruction or labelling in the local Khmer language.   Growing awareness of the negative impacts of conventional farming systems have led to a push for more sustainable agriculture.  In Cambodia, there are some exciting projects using sustainable agriculture techniques such as organic farming, and Integrated Pest Management (IPM), where natural pest enemies rather than chemicals are used to kill pests.    PEPY believes that the best way to spread the idea of sustainability is through the younger generation.  That’s why the Sustainable Agriculture programme has started at the PEPY school; hopefully more and more kids will take these ideas back to their families and the project will spread.    It is also up to us to make a change.  Try buying organic produce when you’re in the supermarket, and choose products which are traded fairly to support better working conditions for producers.  Or how about finding a farmers market in your area, so you can sustain yourself on yummy, fresh produce and support your local community at the same time!

Sponsored Raffle Prize

Congratulations to this month's sponsored prize winner!  Tom Kurt is the winner of the GoPro Camera!    What is this sponsored prize thing? Each month, donors who give over 30 dollars to PEPY will be entered into a raffle for a sponsored prize.  Next month our prize is a pressure pack from Pressure Products, LLC (www.neversuckagain.com). The pressure pack works with hydration systems such as Camelbacks.  With the Never Suck Again pressure pack you can share water without sharing germs, clean bike gears or camping dishes, spray your buddy as you pass him on the road, or simply hydrate more effectively.  Donate to PEPY this month and you will be entered into a raffle for a Never Suck Again Pressure Pack.  This month we will have two winners.    Be sure to check out next month's newsletter to see if you are the lucky winner! Many thanks to the generous folks at GoPro, Pressure Products, and all those who have donated in the last month.

PEPY Events

PEPY wants to extend a special thanks to Susan Kaye, who decided to celebrate her birthday this year with donations in lieu of gifts.  Her cowboy-themed birthday party raised over 1,000 dollars for educational projects in Cambodia!  Thank you so much to Susan and all her generous guests. Also many thanks to Robin Cloninger and the "Down Under Bar" for a successful fundraiser in Hamamatsu on September 9th.   The party raised over 700 dollars through donated drinks and a raffle in support pf PEPY and BEE Japan.  Thanks to all who helped out and donated!   Upcoming PEPY Trips: December 24- January 1:  The PEPYRideSchool Volunteer Trip , Siem Reap Deliver the Bike-to-School Program bikes and explore the temples of Angkor!  Email volunteer@pepyride.org for more info.  THERE ARE ONLY A FEW SPOTS LEFT!   December 27- January 18:  The 2007 PEPY Ride This 3 week ride follows in some of the tread marks of the original 2006 PEPY Ride.  Riders will visit local schools and amazing NGOs as they learn, connect and cycle through Cambodia.  This ride is full!  So sorry!    February 24 - March 3:  PEPY Goes "High End" Want to travel to Cambodia, but want to do it in style?  Looking to see the temples of Cambodia and experience rural villages but not ready to give up the King-size bed?  Join PEPY's February - March tour!  This trip will feature luxury hotels, high-class dining, and still offer you a chance to experience rural Cambodia and volunteer with PEPY projects.  Email volunteer@pepyride.org to find out more.  Upcoming PEPY Events:  October 28th: Calgary Halloween Scavenger Hunt This Halloween get your boo on as you race around downtown Cowtown solving riddles and following the clues of a corpse in this years 2nd annual charity Halloween Scavenger Hunt visit www.halloweenmystery.com for details.   Oct 28th: Tokyo Charity Scavenger Hunt's Halloween Hunt Compete with teams from all over Japan.  Enjoy an awesome night out in Tokyo.  Party it up Halloween-style and explore all that Tokyo has to offer.  If you don't know the best places to go in Tokyo, come to find out.  If you do, come to win.  Find out more at www.tokyoscavengerhunt.com   November 8th: Calgary Photo Exhibit You are invited to see the world through the eyes of photographer Kristian Whillans with his first showing of his Asian experiences November 8th at 'WELL', Lower 908 17th Avenue SW.  Prints will be available in support of the PEPY Ride. Email kristianwhillans@gmail.com for more information.    November 12th: Sarasota, Florida- PEPY Concert & Fundraiser Contact Nicola at nicolajones@hotmail.com for more information.  Feel free to start your own PEPY events!  We'd LOVE your support!

The PEPY Ride Sponsors