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April 26th, 2010 - WE DID IT!!!

I left Bakersfield for Monterey, CA on a beautiful sunny day. I was going up to Monterey to meet up with Andy Pogany, our CFO, to do some work on the books and get the bike tested in the process. I figured that since he has a garage, I might as well take the new Kenda tires with me and install them there. The ride was a great one. The bike handled very well fully loaded, and even with two odd shape tires strapped to the back, and the mighty winds of Kern County, I kept a steady 80mph pace easily. For those of you who have been following this blog religiously, you might remember that I first met Andy on my way down from Alaska. He is a fellow GSer (www.gsresources.com, a motorcycle forum focused on older Suzuki GS line) who invited me to stay at his house for a day or two. The first time I ended up staying for 4 days and this time I doubled that! Andy and Jollene are gracious hosts. Andy’s house is right on top of a giant hill with a view of the Pacific Ocean, and his property is as close as to any wilderness you can find in California. It’s got raccoons, deer, turkey, wild boars, hawks, frogs… you name it, it’s there.

For some odd reason, Andy and I get along like we’ve known each other for years, and he is one hell of a cool guy. With a BS in finance and MBA, it really was a no-brainer to elect him as our CFO/Treasurer on the Transcontinental Humanitarian Corp. board. This non-profit bookkeeping business is more than I can take, and I’m glad that Andy is pretty good at this stuff and volunteering to do it. Happily, Cynthia joined me in Monterey the next day and we pretty much got the whole corporation beast under control. We held another board meeting with all the directors and unanimously elected Jared Williams (another fellow GSer, I know! The list is growing.) as the 6th director and Public Relation Officer. Welcome aboard Jared. You will be hearing more from him and his upcoming hunger walk in Boston soon.

But the biggest news of all is that WE DID IT!!!! 4 months and 20 days of hard work finally paid off. Our application for tax-exemption got approved by the IRS, and Transcontinental Humanitarian Corp. is officially a non-profit public benefit 501(c)(3) corporation, and that means that from now on, all contributions and donations are tax deductable. You don’t believe me? Try the donate button and see for yourself. No seriously do it! I dare you!

When I received the news, I was in shock for longest time. It feels good to see what I have started is becoming what I didn’t even imagine. I started this ride to make a difference and see the world in process, but I met so many people sharing the same passion and enthusiasm that I could not resist the temptation of jumping higher. We are divided as species, but we can unite on what we can believe in and make a bigger difference together. A 1982 Suzuki motorcycle became something bigger than life for me. Now I can say that I’m content with what I have done, and I see a very bright future for this budding organization.

Many thanks to beautiful Cynthia Quispe for her hard work on writing/editing and proof-reading the countless words I scribbled on the corporation documents. I couldn’t have done it without her. Thanks to Andy Pogany for crunching down all those alien numbers, thanks to Kyle Ford for looking over the steps like a hawk and pointing out legal misunderstandings. Thanks to Joe Deluca for running around and getting the signatures, thanks to Jared Williams for his share of knowledge and his great support, and many thanks to Don and Pam Chriske for scanning and sending all the correspondent letters, and thanks to myself for not killing myself in the process. Thanks to all of those who made this journey possible, from individuals to big corporations, all who provided road-side assistance, occasional beer and burger sponsors, thank you to all of you, I couldn’t have done it any other or better way.

Cheers,

Chris Sorbi

There are 9 Comments

  1. Spanky
    April 28, 2010 at 6:03 am

    Congrats on another milestone…

  2. CaddmannQ
    April 28, 2010 at 7:09 am

    Wow, Chris! That’s a lot of hoops to jump though. I don’t envy you for all the legal paperwork involved. It looks like now you may get back to the real business of your journey.

    Those water bottle holders you’re using look like the type I bolted to my Nomad. (I attached mine to the windshield frame.)

    If you just put screws in the two original holes, I’d consider putting a third screw in the middle of the mounting bar. Mine cracked through & I had to do that after only a couple thousand miles.

  3. Spanky
    April 28, 2010 at 7:45 am

    I had this awesome water bottle that the holder actually velcro’d to my windshield brackets… However the special sized bottle that went into the holder, my wife left it sitting inside of a casino in Laughlin & I never saw it again.. Cant get a replacement bottle either since the company went out of business… I still have the holder though!!!

  4. Skateguy50
    April 28, 2010 at 10:01 am

    Thanks for the update here, for those of you wondering things will be picking up pace now that the IRS stuff is in. Updates and the blog should start filling up more regularly like last year.

    I have been slow to get my stuff together for the walk for hunger information as I have also been working on a Haiti Missionary trip I am going on in July to help rebuild some schools and housing.

    The walk is this coming Sunday in Boston and my friends and I will be walking 20 miles to support the local food program “Project Bread”. They do a lot of great work here and help families and kids in need through grants and food donations to local programs that could not survive without their help. The walk is the big fundraiser of the year for them and if anyone here wants to help out my team really needs a boost in donations as we get closer to the walk.

    The link is in my signature if you are interested in more info or donating to that.

  5. Jon
    April 28, 2010 at 2:37 pm

    Congrats!

  6. Bradleymaynar
    April 29, 2010 at 3:09 am

    Woo Hoo!!! Awesome news! Can’t wait to read the new adventures of Chris globe trekking for an excellent cause. I’ll be sure to send another donation soon.

    To the people behind him, a huge round of applause! Your work is what makes this possible!

    Brad bk

  7. Chris Sorbi
    April 30, 2010 at 6:21 am

    Thanks guys, it was hoot. The bottle holders are aluminum and Cad is right, they are pretty flimsy. I’ve had the right side one on for over 8 months and no problem but I’ll drill some new holes to make sure. I always take the bottles off and put them in the aluminum boxes, not that they are worth anything but losing one means looking all over to find a replacement You’ll be amazed what people steal for fun. You gotta nail it down or it’ll start walking.

  8. CaddmanQ
    May 1, 2010 at 3:31 am

    The ones I bought were Schwinn, which were a little sturdier than the cheap ones, but they’re all gonna crack eventually IMO. One thing I like about mine is that they are flexible enough to bend, so they will accept a slightly larger or smaller bottle.

  9. mom
    May 10, 2010 at 4:30 am

    I’m proud of your achievements! Waiting for the next update and pics from Arizona!

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