The Official Dancing Deer Baking Co. Blog

On Wednesday, April 28th, One Family Inc hosted its 2010 Mothers of Inspiration Event.  This annual event celebrates One Family Scholars and Graduates - all of whom are mothers who were homeless or at risk for homelessness and who are attending college to build a pathway out of poverty for themselves and their families. 

Dancing Deer Baking Company’s founder Trish was honored with the Founders Award at this year’s event - read her accepting remarks here:

    Thank you so much. What a fun evening!  I love this event and am obviously dedicated to this organization.  It does very important work and I’m proud to be part of it.

    Thank you Mayor for speaking about our employees.  Because it’s really always about the people.  Everything we do should put people first.

    The other thing which sparks a thought from your very sweet remarks Mayor, is that you said I’ve accomplished various things all on my own. I’ve never done anything really entirely on my own. I’ve had an enormously positive support structure all through my life and a huge network of friends and family.  We don’t actually do things on our own. One can push an idea forward but it doesn’t happen unless we bring other resources and people together and can mobilize behind the idea. That’s what One Family has done. That’s what you’ve done as Mayor and what you’ve done as Governor, Deval, and the many accomplished people in this room have gotten here with support and that’s what the Scholars program is about.

    I was thinking about awards this morning. Sometimes, when I find myself in particularly challenging tight spots, I give myself little awards for taking the high road or hanging tough or resisting an urge to be petty.  And I really deserve those awards!! I am also very practiced at giving them because I get myself in tight spots all the time.  And when I was thinking about that, I was realizing that when I face those challenges, in addition to my own little awards for hanging in, I’ve always had that support system. And I think that’s why I’m so powerfully connected to One Family because I realize how lucky I’ve been.  There’s always been someone there for me in a crisis.  And I’ve had a few. . . . I really am honored to be able to help other people through their crises.

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It’s 6am and I’m still on Trish Time. Back in the comforts of my own home, I no longer have to figure out the route, make the energy drinks or the peanut butter sandwich Trish takes with her, get the GPS working, or the videos downloaded, or work the checklist to make sure she has everything she needs before she rides off.

I can take a moment to breathe, and consider the journey.

There is the business of the day.

It began as I described above, with the tasks necessary to get Trish on the road on time. Making a peanut butter sandwich is easy; figuring out how to stay within miles of Trish, driving an RV through tight lanes and poorly marked streets in the rain, not so much. The morning often involved recalculating the route for any number of reasons, which meant that I got on Google Maps, Beth read the directions of the planned route, and Trish tried to reprogram her Garmin, the nifty little piece of technology that points Trish in the right direction down to the street, but never really shows the big picture. Needless to say, Trish never got lost, but we did. Often. That was tough on Trish, needing warmer clothes or food and we’re no where in sight. It was tough on me, because I hate bad signage. And there is lots of it out there.

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Zach and Jennifer at refine + focus were kind enough to put together this beautiful montage of The Mother's Day Ride recounting the faces of family homelessness and positive impact that shelters are making on their lives. We are very proud to share it with you and continue to applaud Trish for her efforts to raise awareness of this critically important issue.



refine + focus was instrumental in coordinating all of the social media aspects of the ride and we are very grateful to them for their efforts.

Home!! OK so I did this crazy thing and miraculously arrived home safely on the wings of so many people who made it possible. Now what I’m thinking about is how to use this foundation to do more to end homelessness - after catching my breath.

HUGE apologies and thanks to the friends who arrived at the Commons expecting the event to be there. It was moved at the last minute, appropriately, to Project Hope and because of security issues the decision was made not to publicize the new location. We had a wonderful homecoming with the Mayor, Undersecretary of Housing Tina Brooks, One Family and the Deer family and friends. The Governor was unable to come due to the passing of his mother-in-law yesterday – very sad news and we are all sending our warm thoughts to Diane, Deval and their family.

HUGE apologies also that while naming my list of thanks I somehow forgot to shine a light on:

• UPS which delivered all the Gingerbread Houses and supplest to the shelters up and down the East Coast

• Our great vendor Arcade Snacks which supplied all those fruits, nuts, chocolate and candies. They also supplied me with power food and think personally ate a case of dried apricots and mixed nuts.

• Two volunteers who jumped in to man the logistics, do the outreach in 14 cities, manage content posting on the blog from the home base -- Lindsay Interland and Kate Brown – very talented young professionals who were extraordinary. I‘m still wondering how Beth landed them and impressed with the way they stepped in so seamlessly.

• Two friends of Beth, Amy Catlin and Kim Ludlow who volunteered to round out the road crew and joined us for about a week each to do everything from driving to technical solutions. You really can’t imagine how enormous a contribution that was unless you’ve been on a similar journey. It was a completely intense and exhausting 24/7 commitment. These people are angels as well as smart and talented. We just wouldn’t have made it without them.

Please forgive me for not calling you out at the ceremony today. The danger in remembering this now is that I’m likely to wake up in the middle of the night and forget another important sponsor or supporter. So you may be hearing from me on this topic again soon. At the moment I’m running out of juice and about to shut down.

Today’s ride started unofficially at 3:30 when I awoke and listened to the pouring rain. We weren’t actually pedaling the final leg until 5:20 AM and arrived n Boston 125 miles, 8,000 feet of elevation, 9 hours, 6,000 calories and many moments of riding camaraderie later. Some time mid day we began to dry out but the sun didn’t really come out from the clouds until pretty much the very moment we were over the city line n to Hyde Park. The first dry pavement I had seen in 9 days however showed itself back n Pomfret, CT. Very welcome sight. Having had only three 20 mile pulls on the entre tarp this long haul over a hilly course in imperfect weather conditions actually was a breeze because two great riding friends were pulling the whole way. Thank you Ashley and Scott! Also Beth and Kim hung in there and drove at 16 miles an hour for the entire day (which I am sure I would not be capable of doing myself) to make sure we arrived on time with none of the travel surprises or hiccups that are commonplace.

I can’t tell you how good it feels to be home with my son, clean and in my own bed.

I’m looking forward to being back at work tomorrow on the cookie selling side of Dancing Deer. We have lots to do and I miss everyone.

New England Cable News reports on Trish's return to Boston after 15 days and 1,500 miles.



Read the entire story here.

CLICK HERE to watch the NECN interview with Trish before setting out on a 15-day, 1,500-mile mission to promote positive social change.

From my bb again so brief. Grueling day in wind and rain. Kept thinking there must be something wrong with my bike it was moving so slowly. Was caked in mud. Switched it out to the clean alternate with compromised frame (car accident) which gave me a psychological edge and kept riding. Sag wagon fell behind and when it caught up grabbed me to get to Salvation Army where the Mayor was waiting. But traffic held us back and we missed him by minutes.

And then magically all was good again as we were welcomed in to the last shelter of our trip. Same rush of energy and room full of creative happiness. I wish I'd kept track of every time some delighted child or adult told me they'd always wanted to make a gingerbread house. Tonight I was particularly taken with two teenage brothers who made some of the most surprising and wonderful use of found materials and worked meticulously and collaboratively.

Once again the staff was impressive and kind. The stories of how each family became homeless were familiar but unique.

We were thanked generously and yet it felt as always, that we owed the thanks and had so much to be thankful for.

Got to Old Lyme in time to visit with my failing father who was very perky this evening. He vaguely understood something about what I'd been up to but in any case was very proud. I can imagine what Mom would have said and done too. Probably some little hand painted sign and a rhyme and a hug and then some admonitions about being careful and perhaps not being too full of myself. And she'd have wanted to know all about the shelters and have an opinion about the state of the world and the lopsided distribution of wealth. I just remembered Mom's crusade (successful) to bring inner city kids down to enjoy the shoreline. It was controversial. Go Mom!

Not sure what we've accomplished. Will start trying to sort that out tomorrow. 120 mile last leg ride starts at 5 AM. Scott Chamberlin from Wheelworks and Ashley Sanders from the Blue Hills Cycling Club are riding with me. Will be soooo great to have company.

And of course when I reunite with Dimitri (15) and a few days later Eleanna also home from college I will be grateful with a new appreciation of home.