Ph. D Holmes-Eber - Breathtaking: How One Family Cycled Around the World for Clean Air and Asthma

This story was the result of the dedicated efforts and contributions of hundreds of people and businesses across the globe. While our family undertook the fun part of cycling around the world, many others ran World Bike for Breath, donated funds, provided logistical and emotional support, and, ultimately, helped bring this book to fruition. While we would like to express our specific thanks to the amazing people and organizations below, we are also immensely grateful to the hundreds of other kind, generous people who helped in every way from offering roadside help or a free place to stay, to donating hours of their time, to interviewing us so that we could tell our story on TV, radio, and in the news. This book is your story too. Thank you for believing in our dream: to create a world where everyone can breathe. We extend our special thanks to the following:

• The hardworking board of World Bike for BreathDr. Maureen Koval, Tom Clune, Dr. Deborah Wheeler, Dr. Linda Warren, Chuck Veilloux, Katie Jones, and Tatiana Dudley. We especially thank the boards directors, Brett Thackray and Robin Simons, for their countless hours running a nonprofit organization while trying to track down the world-wandering Ebers. We apologize for making them store our many mementos picked up along the way and hope that our little random notes and postcards tucked into the packages provided at least a bit of entertainment in return.
• The tireless volunteer staff of World Bike for Breath: Mike Culver, who designed and maintained our website; Eileen Magnuson, who ran the office and spent countless hours logging donations; Tina and Gabriel Perez, who created the stunning logo, brochures, and marketing materials; Eric and Cheryl Fox, who received bimonthly packages of film and turned them into unforgettable photos and slides for the website and this book; and Matt Topham, our pro bono legal counsel. Thanks also to Jon Jones for his photographic expertise and assistance with the cover photo; and to Mindy Jones, Noni Baran, and Adrienne Williamson, who provided all-around fundraising, event, and cooking support. Finally, Jonathan Maus deserves recognition for essentially donating his PR help for free. We realize that trying to set up television and newspaper interviews with a cycling family that was never where they were scheduled to be (not to mention often pedaling far out of signal range) must have been hell. Hopefully our crazy antics provided food for some entertaining stories about one of your most unusual clients.
• Our corporate sponsors, who agreed with our philosophy that if we want to save our environment for future generations, we need to raise our children in the outdoors, teaching them to treasure the world around us. Thank you to Burley, REI, Patagonia, Arkel Overdesigns, Old Man Mountain, and T-Mobile. Your equipment is awesome, and we still bike with it everywhere. Any company whose bikes, tents, panniers, clothes, racks, and phones can survive two kids and fifteen thousand kilometers across four continents has truly had their equipment pass with flying colors!
• Our many generous local business sponsors: BI Cycle, The Traveler, Town and Country Markets, Starbucks, MSR, Cascade Designs, Virginia Mason, Wenzlau Architects, Crystal Photography, Eagle Harbor Chiropractic, Bell and Thomson DDS, Esvelt Engineering, and Danas Showhouse. Thanks also to the city of Bainbridge Island, which generously gave Lorenz a year and a half leave from work to go on this adventure.
• Our faithful world sponsors, who sponsored us per kilometer and kept us committed to pedaling on those days when we really just wanted to go home, take a long hot shower, and crawl into a warm bed. While we cannot list you individually, you know who you are, and when this book comes out, there will be one wonderful big party for you!
• One world sponsor deserves extra special appreciation: Paulas mom, Barbara Sullivan. When Paulas mom heard about the proposed world cycling journey of her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren, she replied in her truly loving and magnanimous way, Well, I dont like the idea of you taking my grandchildren around the world on bicycles, but I understand it is very important to you. So Ill do whatever I can to support you. And she did. She not only donated the largest individual sponsorship but also rescued us from cat-and flea-infested apartments in Moscow, boosted morale with a Christmastime visit in Hong Kong, provided a luxurious vacation in Thailand, and faithfully read all our mail and paid our bills while we cycled around the world.

Finally, there are all the amazing people who turned this story from a pile of journals and photos into a manuscript and book:

• Writing a book can be a lonely and never-ending project. Enter the amazing concept of coworking! We cannot thank the Bain-bridge Island OfficeXpats run by Leslie Schneider and Jason Omens enough for the incredibly creative and supportive community they have created. Monday-morning check-ins for the past five years have kept Paula accountable to complete the chapter drafts she promised. Without these deadlines, shed probably still be stuck in China (literarily speaking)! Wed especially like to thank Xpats colleagues Karen Klein, Joanna Jenkins, and Paula Willems for volunteering to read the early drafts. Looking back on those drafts, were not sure why they kept reading. But thankfully, something about the story kept them going and encouraged us to finish the book.
• We also co-opted two professional writing friends to read and comment on the more polished versions of the manuscript: Robin Simons, the author of fourteen books, and Kirstie Pelling, an award-winning British family travel blogger. Their gentle but truthful feedback taught us so much.
• Last but not least, we want to express our deep appreciation to our editors at Falcon, Mason Gadd and Kellie Hagan. When Mason made the offer to publish a book about an adventurous bicycling family of four, he had no idea what he was signing up for. The Ebers are, well, a rather independent-minded set of people; naturally, we had lots of debates about this manuscript before it finally made it to press. Mason handled the challenges with a calm and professionalism that was impressive. His enthusiastic support for getting this story in print, his personal attention to every aspect of the project, and his ever-open door make him a true treasure in the large and sometimes impersonal world of editors and publishing houses. We also want to thank Kellie, who like Mason, faced many unexpected challenges in editing and producing such an unusual book with a very complex layout. Kellies amazing organization, efficiency, and painstaking attention to detail kept the project on track, resulting in a beautiful book interweaving narrative and archival materials in a seamless and aesthetically pleasing design. Working with Mason and Kellie and their hardworking professional team has made us truly thankful that we chose to publish our story with Falcon.