MEMBERconnection
PHOTODISC
COURTESY OF ROY JONES
Cyclingfor kids
A TEAM OF ;ve men from Northern England
are taking extraordinary measures to endure
a pain-;lled month of cycling in an effort to
raise funds for a hospice-care facility.
Team captain Roy Jones, 48, founder
of the bicycle company Chitech (www.
chitecheurope.com), a Costco supplier, has
gathered a group of friends to ride from San
Diego, to St. Augustine, Florida (www.
usacoast2coast.com). It’s a distance of
roughly 3,152 miles, which includes about
81,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. The
journey will begin on August 30 and end on
September 30, requiring the team to cover
about 100 miles a day. That’s a tough feat for
a seasoned cyclist—a description that Jones
quips doesn’t apply to him, or to any of the
other guys on his team.
“We ;red our ;rst coach because he
said we couldn’t make it,” Jones told The
Connection in April, while in the early stages
The team, left to right: Karl Rosedale, 40;
Roy Jones, 48; Michael Cox, 57; Rik Waddon
(British Paralympics silver medalist);
Gary Ward, 47. Waddon is supporting the
team but won’t make the trip.
recession has hit nonpro;ts just as hard as
all other businesses,” Jones says. “Claire
House needs £ 2. 5 million [about $3.7 million]
to open its doors each year, and after you
see how they work with families, you want
to see it stay open.”—Will Fi;eld
of his training. “I’m beginning to wonder if he
wasn’t right about that now.”
But, he says, memories of visits to Claire
House (
www.claire-house.org.uk) are the
inspiration he needs to see it through. Claire
House is a 10-bed hospice near Liverpool for
children with life-limiting and life-threatening
conditions. Jones ;rst visited Claire House in
2003 and had a hard time leaving.
The team chose to ride across the U.S.
because they wanted a challenge worthy of
their £100,000 (about $150,000) goal.“The
WHEN MARK ICANBERRY was 7, he
wasn’t content to camp by the side of a
lake; he wanted to camp in the lake. So he
lashed together several logs he found on the
shore and shoved off. The story illustrates
his long-held passion for building his own
means of adventure, and the motivation
behind his Look, Learn & Do books and his
new website,
www.LooLeDo.com, which
teach children how to create projects, such
as miniature greenhouses, birdbaths and
compasses, from common household items.
“Creativity and resourcefulness are
more important than any so-called art
skills,” says Icanberry, a Costco member
in Alamo, California, and a father.
With the launch of LooLeDo.com,
kids, parents, teachers and educators
can get ideas and share their crafts and
a skills,” says Icanberry, a Costco member t a f kids, parents, teachers and educators a
Skip to my LooLeDo
science projects with others. The website
provides updated and unique kids’ crafts
made from easily found supplies, with
video and photo step-by-step instructions.
LooLeDo.com users can register and
upload photos of crafts they have made,
with customizable descriptions and tags.
Users can also upload their own videos or
link to others. Membership is free.
“We don’t think it’s necessary for par-
ents and teachers to spend an arm and a
leg to get the necessary materials for crafts
they find on LooLeDo.com,” says
Icanberry, who adds that virtually
everything he builds is completely
made of or has parts in it that are
product packaging from Costco. “All
you need is imagination.”
—T. Foster Jones
everything he builds is completelyou need is imagination.” ou need is imagination.” .
THREE YEARS AGO, Westlake Village,
California, Costco member Rocky Stayart
and her husband, Chuck, were watching
their 3-year-old grandson three days a
week. Realizing he was at an age where
instilling manners is important, she went
looking for a book to teach the basics.
“After about two months of investigating, I could not find anything that
was fun, easy, exciting for this age
group,” Stayart recalls. “So I decided to
write a book myself. I’m not a professional writer, but it all came together.”
Magic Manners at Mealtime (www.
magicmanners.com) is a colorful collection
of rhymes aimed at teaching 2- to 7-year-
olds about acceptable table behavior. A
red cloth napkin, embroidered with a gold
star, is included with the book, which can
stand up on a table, and the thick, glossy,
brightly colored pages are easy to clean.
A page of stickers comes with the book to
reward the child, and the flip side of each
page features a Spanish translation.
Stayart thinks it must be working. She
says, “I receive e-mails saying the kids are
now telling their parents and other adults
when they’re making a mistake.”
—Steve Fisher
Manners minder
Three-year-old Victoria
learns good manners.
MELANIE WOODS
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about Costco or Costco members, e-mail
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acknowledged or returned.
66 ;e Costco Connection AUGUST 2010
