Who is this Nina person anyway?

   Official Bike and Build bio!

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Award-winning recipe for Double Chocolate Chunk Ninas:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 cups New York University (junior edition)
1 (12 oz) bag semi-sweet chocolate chunks
4 ounces obsessive music listening
2 to 5 tablespoons of indecisiveness
1/2 cup all-carb diet
3500 miles of biking
4 continents traveled
3 ounces chocolate covered espresso beans
1 teaspoon sarcasm with hints of cheekiness
1 dash adventurism
(optional) 1 teaspoon occasional laziness

Mix haphazardly. Add biking miles 65 miles at a time over the course of two months. Put in oven before oven is done preheating. Bake for 20 years, allowing 1 year for cooling. Sprinkle with chocolate covered espresso beans.

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What is Bike and Build?

General Highlights:
 Bike and Build is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation that organize cross-country bike trips to raise awareness and funds for affordable housing.

 Bike and Build has raised over $1.6 million over the past six years, with almost half a million from the summer of 2008 alone!

 Bike and Builders bike upwards of 4000 miles over the course of two summer months while stopping to build affordable houses in communities all over the country.

Learn more from Bike and Build's own About Us page.


The Southern route (my Bike and Build trip):
Who: Nina and about 30 other cool people!
What: A total of 3534 miles and 11 build days
Where: Jacksonville, Florida to San Francisco, California.
When: June 10th to August 17th
Why: To raise money and awareness for affordable housing! And because it's awesome!

Why is affordable housing important?

In light of the United States' current (and completely problem-free) housing market, affordable housing is more important than ever.

Affordable housing (aka Fair Market Rate): housing for which rent or mortgage payments (plus utilities) does not exceed 30% of the family's income.

There is no county in the country where an individual can
work 40 hours per week at the minimum wage and afford even a
one-bedroom apartment at the local Fair Market Rate.¹

Problem: About 27 million people spend more than 30 percent of their monthly income on housing (with half of these people spending more than 50 percent).

Problem: People who work more than 52 hours a week on minimum wage would still end up spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing.

Noticeable gap between Renter's Wage and minimum wage (even when working 52 hours a week)

Renter's Wage: the wage required for a single individual to be able to afford the Fair Market Rate working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year (no vacation or sick days).

Want to help make a difference? See How can I help? for more information.

¹http://www.nlihc.org/oor/oor2008/introduction.pdf

How can I help?

Donate to Bike and Build!

Pick my name from the dropdown list if you'd like to support my efforts this summer.
Proceeds go to affordable housing organizations and communities around the country, yay!

Not sure how much to contribute? Sponsor a day of my trip for a dollar a mile! We average at about 65 miles daily, and it ranges from as little as 36 miles to as much as 110 miles in a single day. However, any amount is greatly appreciated!

Fun fact:
Not one to talk the talk without walking the walk, the highest contribution so far is from Nina Chen with a donation of $200. (Yep, that's me!)
I wonder if anyone will challenge my position as top contributor . . .

(6/3/09) Holy cow, thanks to Y. Ma and S. Cheng for matching my $200 donation! And thank you to all of you for supporting Bike and Build! $4770! Better than I could have imagined! :)

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Still looking for more ways to help? Volunteer with your local affordable housing group! Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding Together are some awesome non-profits driven by volunteers and supported by Bike and Build.

Alternatively, if you are between the ages of 18 and 25, you could always try inspiring people by doing something wild and adventurous, like biking across the country for charity, hehe.