Raising Marquell

Our first debt of gratitude and our greatest find 

are his wonderful parents, who support our effort to make him fast.

Transforming lives one pedal stroke at a time is good for the young person that is served, but it is most certainly a grand opportunity for those who toe in and do the work. It is always interesting, usually enlightening, and sometimes fun.

Marquell Brown was 11 when he introduced himself to me. The first day we put him in cleats he fell over so many times, I think he was traumatized. But a week later he climbed up over Terwilliger and rode out to the velodrome.

Marquell participated in a Cycling Camp at the PSU campus in which nearly everyone on the team participated at some point. He gardened, cooked, shopped, registered, signed up, checked out, climbed, sprinted, and most of all, towed. He towed my wheelchair back and forth across downtown too many times to count.

He has email, see: marquellbrown@ymail.com

He has a Multnomah County Library card. He knows how to work the scene in the Pearl, and he can cook a sizzling sea food plate like the one he likes to order at Pho Than Long. 

When De'Shaun came back from Church Camp, he could tell, Marquell had become much faster then he remembered. Marquell raced his first race Sunday at the Vancouver Crit and finished 7th out of ten after fighting hard to hold on to the pack. Now Marquell is on sabatical in Las Angeles, but we look forward to his return.