Husband and wife Richard and Susan Rogers rolled into West Point, New York, on September 6, 2004, completing a two-month journey from Seattle, Washington, on a tandem bicycle. They undertook this cross-country ride to raise funds for Mustard Seed Tutorial Center, a nonprofit after-school tutoring program that offers low-cost academic assistance to families in Redlands, California.

Richard and Susan have worked with Mustard Seed Tutorial Center for several years. Susan, a 65-year-old retired preschool teacher, began working with early readers at the center in 2003, and Richard, 67, a retired engineer, has tutored high school math at Mustard Seed since 2001. Richard was also elected treasurer of Mustard Seed's board of directors in 2002 and, in this capacity, has participated in Mustard Seed's ongoing fund-raising efforts. The program has only charged $5 per hour for tutoring since it was founded in 1994 and, therefore, must raise between $50,000 and $60,000 each year from other sources.

Richard came up with the idea of a fund-raising cross-country bike ride when he decided to attend his 45th reunion at the U.S. Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1959. An ardent cyclist, he'd also been challenged by some college buddies to attempt the cross-country bike trip. When he told Susan about it, she insisted on going along, so they began to train together; they rode more than 2,000 miles on their tandem bicycle in preparation for the journey.

They sent letters to friends and businesses asking for donations to Mustard Seed in honor of their efforts. Not knowing what sort of response they would receive, they optimistically hoped to raise $5,000 or $6,000. When they left Redlands, 91 donors had pledged a preliminary total of $8,396.54 to Mustard Seed's work.

While the Rogers trained and prepared, Mustard Seed Director Eric Stoddard wanted to create a dynamic map on Mustard Seed's Web site that would update daily to show donors and friends the Rogers' planned route, progress, and location. Thus, he supervised the implementation of an ArcWeb Services live map system to support the endeavor.

The Rogers left Redlands on July 11 and flew to Seattle, where they began their trip the following day. As Susan and Richard traveled, they used a GPS device to determine their coordinates several times each day. They then relayed these coordinates via e-mail to Redlands, where Stoddard added the locations to the map on Mustard Seed's Web site. Users accessed the map to view the Rogers' location and zoom into any of the points on the trip. The couple also sent digital photographs.

Richard and Susan arrived in West Point, New York, 58 days after they left Seattle, and had covered 3,143 miles, averaging 54 miles per day. The efforts of these two committed people, combined with the generosity of 112 donors raised a total of $10,516.36 to support the work of Mustard Seed Tutorial Center.

To view the map, please visit www.mustardseedtutorialcenter.org/2004bikeride on the Web. For more information, contact Mustard Seed Director Eric Stoddard (e-mail: Director@ MustardSeedTutorialCenter.org, tel.: 909-335-8678).