This week, our good friend Mark Wyatt, Executive Director at the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, is making his yearly bike ride across Iowa with RAGBRAI. RAGBRAI is an annual event that draws thousands of Iowans who bike from border to border. The event has attracted celebrities such as Lance Armstrong, Sheryl Crow, Tom Arnold and presidential candidates over its 37 year run.

This year, Mark brought a little bit of Greater Than Goods on the tour. He’s selling our “Another Way to Roll” bicycling shirts as well as the exclusive Iowa Bicycle Coalition shirt. Of course, $5 from each shirt sold goes directly to his group.

Help support biking, bike safety and alternative transportation by checking out this line of shirts. And good luck to all the bicyclists on RAGBRAI this year! Keep pedaling!

There is good inside everyone. Sometimes you can even find it in your own backyard.

RAGBRAI, the annual bike ride across Iowa, brings visitors to our state from all over the world. Riders unplug from their daily lives and plug into the spirit of the small towns across the state. This year, Ames (our home) was proud to be one of the host cities.

One team of bikers - the Whiners, 30-year veterans of RAGBRAI - found themselves camping at a park in my family’s backyard. Light introductions were made. Water for showers was offered. The subject of Greater Than Goods came up. (This is where the good begins.)

The Whiners were moved by our story. Inspired, they held an impromptu auction of authentic Aussie goods donated by a DJ from the land down under. They asked that the proceeds go toward our cause, to help Iowa recover from the summer storms. They, too, wanted to benefit the 2008 Disaster Fund.

On that night, people from across the country (New Hampshire, Florida, Connecticut, Michigan, etc.) and halfway around the world (Australia) came together to express the good that lives inside each of us.

Thank you, Whiners, wherever you are!