Thanks for your interest in the Cycling for Opportunity (C4O) project. C4O (pronounced see-four-oh) is a project that was conceived, organized, and run by a small group of University of Waterloo students as a campus-wide initiative.

Despite the fact that it began as a half-baked idea in January, 1999, the project developed quickly, was launched by the end of April, and was successfully completed by mid-June of the same year. The cyclists were able to reach and surpass their fundraising goal (all funds raised going to two Central American education bursary funds) as well as travel through and learn about Canada in a special and unique way.

There were some indications that other students at the university would be interested in organizing similar trips for the year 2000 and beyond. This website is principally aimed at them, and at all others interested in trips like this. As an initial concept, C4O was designed to offer those students who decided to take it on the opportunity to grow and challenge themselves in an exciting, fun, and socially meaningful way. It was also seen as having the potential for becoming an annual event, creating ties with other universities, and giving a continuing gift of education from the Canadian student bodies to our underprivileged counterparts in the world community. We hope that this website will contribute to the continuation of that vision.

Information on this site is organized in the following way:

• Section 1 discusses our fundraising and media work;
• Section 2 describes our pre-trip training and group preparation;
• Section 3 chronicles our adventures during the cycling itself;
• Section 4 summarizes thoughts in the aftermath of wrapping up the trip; and
• Section 5 compiles assorted links and documentation that you may find useful.

For a quick overview of trip details, please read the C4O 1999 infosheet written by David Clarkson, one of the cyclists on the trip. Please forward any comments or questions on the C4O project to this address.

Those of you interested in participating in Welcome To Canada, a cross-Canada bike ride from May to September 2005, please contact the organizers.

Happy cycling!