Cycling For Sinai

My name is Steve Koch and Cycling for Sinai is the realization of three dreams of mine – doing something to raise money and call attention to one of the models for urban health care serving needy populations in this country – Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago; to ride a bicycle across America; and to do that ride with my son, Jacob Koch.

September and October of 2010 are devoted to fulfilling those dreams. Please join Jacob and me on this journey.

Fulfilling three dreams

There is lots of information about Mount Sinai Hospital available through this website. Sinai has been serving the population of the West Side of Chicago for the last 90 years. A critical part of Sinai’s mission it so serve its patients without regard to their ability to pay. As you might imagine, this creates enormous financial challenges. Many years of meeting day to day needs on insufficient funding have made keeping the physical structures of the hospital up to date fundamentally impossible. That is why, as Chairman of the Sinai Health System Board of Directors, I am cycling the “Southern Tier Route” across the United States to raise money to build an ambulatory care facility and rehabilitate some of Sinai’s existing facilities. After learning about the story of Mount Sinai Hospital, I strongly urge you to contribute generously to our effort. You can make donations by clicking the donation page tab at the top of your screen. Please give as generously as you can – this truly unique hospital system, and the people it serves, really need your help.

Jacob and I have chosen the Southern Tier route for several reasons. Most importantly, it is the shortest route across the country, the weather should be more hospitable than the Northern routes, and it has the least amount of mountains to cross. Trust us, this project is hard enough as it is! You can follow our trip through this website – there will be regular updates and the map has lots of neat features. We are hoping to be joined by lots of friends. Each day, the “whose riding” tab will be updated with information about the friends who are joining us along the way. We are deeply grateful to those who contribute to our cause. We also cannot begin to adequately express our appreciation for the people who are going to take time out of their lives to ride part of the route with us. While this is certainly going to be great fun for everyone who joins us, both types of support are acts of friendship that are truly appreciated.

You can join us

I suspect you can appreciate what a memorable experience it will be for Jacob and I to do this trip together. We are also going to have the great pleasure of being joined by my nephew, Joe Liebman, who is driving our support vehicle.

Please join our journey in whatever way you can – follow our trip, contribute to Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago, and, if you can, come join us and ride.

Steve Koch