You’ll never know which lives you influence, or when, or why but you’re always able to remember those individuals who influenced you.
The success of Invisible Children is a result of hundreds of staff, supporters, interns, and Roadies that have walked through our doors and, together, built this unique community. Alex Guest walked through our doors in Fall 2012, but not on his two feet — his two wheels. This IC legend completed a ridiculously long bike ride to honor the new direction his life was taking.
Alex Guest has a black belt in raising awareness to permanently end the LRA and the exploitation of child soldiering. Before he came on board with Invisible Children, Alex dedicated the majority of his time and pedal power to the Canadian nonprofit Child Soldier Cycle because:
– Alex is Canadian
– Alex is a good person
– Given the choice, Alex would choose biking over driving anyday
Alex (middle) working with Child Soldier Cycle… Challenge: can you find the bike in this photo?
When KONY 2012 made its way around the webiverse, Alex was blown away by how effective our film was at raising global awareness to a cause Child Soldier Cycle invested countless efforts and miles on unicycles towards (yes,we did say unicycles). Alex became an IC fan. Several weeks later, he opened his home up to our Northern Exposure Roadies as they were passing through Ottawa and experienced one of those late-night-life-talks (you know the kind). “Those Roadies genuinely cared about me as soon as I met them. They so could have easily told me how tired they were and gone to bed, but instead they chose to invest that time in me.” Our flannel-wearing Nor-Ex team must have gotten to Alex because not much later we received a Roadie application with his name on it.
“I was lucky enough to have friends like Phil and so many others that helped me figure out a general sort of path in life, but I never had that in high school. I applied to [work for IC] so that I could try and have the same kind of impact on just one high school student that people in my life had on me.”
We’re no stranger to memorable Roadie applications but Alex’s was one for the books. Here’s why- Alex told us that if we hired him that he would cycle to San Diego all the way from Ottawa. “I don’t really know what was going through my head at the time… I had been biking everywhere I needed to go for so long that cycling to start my internship seemed semi-normal.” Well, of course, we had to see what this kid was made of.
Alex spent 22 days on the road and made it roughly 2400 kilometers (that’s 1500 miles for you non-Canadians). Alex eventually stopped cycling in Quincy, Illinois at that point having acquiring enough epic road stories, including but not limited to: meeting a gang running from the Vegas mob, setting up camp on high school baseball fields and a Slip N’Slide Music Festival in Moline, Illinois. From Quincy, Alex packed up his bike momentarily, caught a bus to San Diego and returned to two wheels just in time to cross a chalk-drawn finish line outside our office to the screams of 30+ fans (they thought he biked the entire 4,000 miles #minordetail). Alex proved just as impressive in our Roadie van as he was on a bike and he will forever be regarded as an office legend….even if we did have to teach him how to pump gas for the first time.
As much as you can learn in a classroom, sometimes the best learning comes from tangible participation and the people you meet along the way. Alex found his life’s purpose from the individuals and causes he’s been connected with as a result of his work with both Child Soldier Cycle and Invisible Children.
This year’s Fourth Estate Leadership Summit has all the potential to ignite that type of purpose and direction for a fulfilling life. Join us as we continue building a community dedicated to promoting justice and basic human rights. We’re no Alex Guest, but we know him well enough to say he’d want you to be there. Applications are being accepted until May 15th.
And now, for your viewing pleasure, a short picture montage of Alex’s life as a Roadie (all Instagram worthy).
#nature
Apparently, this is what Canadian patriotism looks like
Do you dream about making it in our blog? I’m not saying you should bike your way to the Fourth Estate Leadership Summit. But if you do, I will definitely write a blog about it. All Invisible Children stories will joyfully be read, bike or no bike – E-mail me at [email protected]
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