Susan is a woman I admire. She is a faith-filled, confident, happy person who loves life (see a previous post entitled “It’s Fun to be Me“). She is a fun and loving wife and a devoted mother of seven children (from adult children all the way down to a son who is four). Her family is very close, and you can just tell that they love being together.

I also admire her tenacity. Case in point: A little over a month ago, I received an email from Susan, which said:

I [have] made a new goal for myself. No, it is not getting all of the children out of the house before I die!

I have set a goal to cycle 100 miles.

It all started in March when I decided to try a spin class at my local gym. I got hooked, have taken nearly 200 classes and now, ten months later, I’ve borrowed a friend’s bike, and have found myself venturing out enjoying the challenge of real world cycling. After a couple months of riding on my own for fun, I decided to do a real ride for a real cause.

Her cause was to help fight leukemia and lymphoma, particularly because her brother-in-law is suffering from blood cancer.

She decided to get creative with fund-raising (always the hardest and often most uncomfortable part of “good causes”). And her whole family got involved in the process.

First, her son arranged a Christmas song for the family to sing, and they made the recording available for download. People could download whether or not they donated. (In fact, you can download the song here.)

As Susan got closer to her goal, she made a fun video to propose an incentive for her friends and family to help her reach her goal. The deal? She’d play a drum solo and share it via video if people helped her get to her target donation amount. (She has been well-known since high school for this talent of playing the drums, so it was an incentive for those who know her!)

She kept people invested in her goal by creating this cool video (with music provided by her son’s band).

Not surprisingly, she did reach her goal. And she followed through on her promise. I love her drum solo (you can see for yourself how talented she is), but I especially appreciate how this video captures the love, unity, and sense of humor that defines this amazing family.