On July 1st, JB Owen, Peter Giesin, and the rest of the Ignite Humanity cycling team officially kicked off their summer cycling trip, which saw Owen and Giesin cycling 10,000km from Vancouver, BC, to St. John’s, NF, on their tandem bike.
In 2020 and 2021, the two spent their summers on cycling trips and fundraising for charity, but this is the first time they’ve set such an ambitious kilometer goal. They will also be filming their new documentary, Ignite Humanity, throughout the summer, showcasing incredible people who are making the world a better place for all.
JB and Peter are the co-founders of Alberta-based Ignite Publishing, the leader in empowerment publishing. They embarked on this cycling trip as part of their mission with Ignite Publishing to inspire others and ignite lives across the country and around the world through their words and actions. The message they have shared with hundreds across their three years of cycling has been one of the possibilities. “We wanted to do something ambitious to show people that anything they dream of is possible. They have to say yes, get up, and do it. I wasn’t an athlete or a cyclist before this, but I was able to make it to 5,000km on our first trip because I believed I could,” Owen shares.
Owen and Giesin’s summer cycling trips started in 2020 when they decided they wanted to get up and do something amazing after being stuck in their home throughout the uncertain early months of 2020. They were looking for new hope, a fresh perspective, and exciting new possibilities. Their solution was to get on the back of their tandem bike and cycle from Red Deer, Alberta, to Ottawa, Ontario, totaling over 5,000km. They also wanted to do more for others, so they raised money for the Sunshine Foundation, which helps Canadian youth with severe physical disabilities or life-threatening illnesses.
After the success of their first year, they decided to go even bigger, cycling over 6,500km from their hometown of Red Deer up to the Yukon and back via the Top of the World Highway. This time, they raised money for their charity initiative, the Ignite Possibilities School of Hope. The initiative is run in partnership with Classroom of Hope. It raises money to fund the building of a school in Indonesia for rural and impoverished students, providing them with the literacy and education they deserve and the tools to lift their community out of poverty.
This charity initiative, which was started in partnership with Classroom of Hope, seeks to raise $35,000, which covers the costs of building a brand-new school in Indonesia. 35,000 bricks make one school, so every dollar is one brick toward building this school. Through fundraising initiatives and donating a portion of their book sales, Ignite Publishing has raised over $5,000 for the initiative.
Lady JB Owen, knighted last month for her entrepreneurial and philanthropic contributions to Humanity, shares about the charity initiative, “We want to promote literacy, reading, and storytelling. We want to provide a place for kids to learn, grow, and step into their greatest potential. Every child deserves access to an education.”
In the future, Ignite Publishing plans to commit to the building of even more schools in places of need and expanding their charity initiative through donor partnerships to include the building of eco-homes with Classroom of Hope. These homes are made of recycled plastic, and one eco-home provides living space for a family and saves one ton of plastic from going to a landfill and polluting the ocean. Learn more and donate at https://igniteyou.life/possibilities-school-of-hope.
On top of fundraising, a new priority has shaped their purpose for their summer 2022 trip. On top of setting their biggest kilometer goal yet, cycling 10,000km coast-to-coast, and their plans to continue fundraising for the School of Hope, JB and Peter are filming for a new documentary project, Ignite Humanity, and launching a book and TV series called Wisdom From The Back Of A Bike. The two plan on using their summer of cycling to produce inspiring content that showcases people from across the country that are creating positive change on a global scale and exemplifies what it means to Ignite Humanity.
About the Ignite Humanity Project
Ignite Humanity is Ignite Publishing’s latest project centered on creating both a book and a documentary around the idea of igniting Humanity. To Ignite Publishing, Igniting Humanity means taking action, developing impactful thought leadership, and making a positive change to create a better future and world for every human on the planet.
The documentary aims to catalog the diverse and impactful insights every person has on Humanity and the light we collectively can bring into the world. Filming officially began on June 6th and will continue throughout the summer. The documentary will feature individuals on screen sharing their powerful Ignite Moments, as well as their perseverance, tenacity, and strength. They will be the moments that transform them and help them step into something bigger and better in their life.
