Southwest Institute for Resilience

In September, I'm doing a unique race across Mongolia - Monkey Run Mongolia 2022 - and raising funds for my favorite local charity, the Ridgway Community Apiary.

My name is Angela Hawse, and while many may know me as a professional mountain guide, I’m also deeply committed to helping my hometown community build a sustainable and environmentally responsible future.

How are Honey Bees and Monkey Bikes related?

Honey bees, of course, are much more important than Monkey Bikes, but this combination is an excellent match for a fundraiser for our local Ridgway Community Apiary. What they do have in common is they’re both tiny… thus the perfect match! Both could also be considered ecological, with honey bees pollinating a 12-mile radius and Monkey Bikes getting 100 miles per gallon. Rest assured 100% of the funds raised will go directly to the Apiary and none go to any costs associated with this adventurous, rather stupid 10-day race on a children’s motorcycle across Mongolia.

About Us

You'll find more details about the Monkey Run Mongolia below, but since this fundraiser supports the Ridgway Community Apiary, here is more about how we make and impact! The Ridgway Community Apiary is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit under the umbrella of The Southwest Institute for Resilience aka SWIRL, a Colorado nonprofit dedicated to helping small nonprofits like ours become self-sufficient.

The Apiary

In 2020, my sister Vicki Hawse, Judy Hazen, Fred Boyle, and I won support from the Town of Ridgway to build a community apiary (bee sanctuary). In three years, we’ve built a strong foundation with 15 hives - home to hundreds of thousands of honey bees busy pollinating everything from local crops to the community garden next door and beautiful flowers within and beyond town limits.

Now, we're expanding our reach to include educational programs and extended community outreach to recruit more advocates for pollinators. Volunteer labor fuels our work, elevating our impact by ensuring donations go further. We are grateful for our Apiary members and local donors.

Funds raised will support:

Donations over our goal will fund future Apiary project materials, leveraged through using volunteer labor. 100% of donations go to the Ridgway Community Apiary - not a dime covers expenses for our race across Mongolia on 50cc motorcycles!

Why am I such a fan of honey bees?

Virtually all of the world’s seed plants need to be pollinated. Without pollinators like honey bees, the human race and all of Earth’s terrestrial ecosystems would not survive. Of the 1,400 crop plants grown worldwide, i.e., those that produce all of our food and plant-based industrial products, almost 80% require pollination by the animal kingdom. Honey bees alone pollinate 80% of all flowering plants, including more than 130 types of fruits and vegetables. (source: USForest Service). The Simple Truth: We Can’t Live Without Them!

About Monkey Run Mongolia 2022 and Riders

My race partner in this endeavor is Heidi Shingleton, who works for Sterling Rope in Maine and saysYes to everything. Thus she’s been roped in from the beginning. Her father is also an avid bee host, and just so happened to invent a custom bee vacuum (the Colorado Bee Vacuum) that’s gone viral, which extracts honey bee swarms from all kinds of places they shouldn’t be and helps relocate them to safer homes. Heidi and I are thrilled about our adventure and the opportunity to do this fundraiser to support and promote the importance of pollinators!

“The Adventurists” who put on this 10-day Monkey Run across Mongolia in September require each team to do a fundraiser for our favorite charity and contribute $600 to their Official Charity: Cool Earth. Good for them!

Team Giddy Up - Monkey Run Mongolia 2022

Monkey Run Mongolia 2022

In 2020, I was searching for a unique, different type of adventure, and I came across a group of wingnuts called “The Adventurists” who promise to deliver. Dubbed “A Whole New Level of Adventuring Stupidity,” I could not resist! You must check out their website, linked below, to understand the absurdity of this endeavor and the others they carry out worldwide. You may want to sign up yourself! Be sure and navigate to Monkey Run Mongolia 2022 for a few more laughs! I’ve always wanted to travel to Mongolia, so thus Monkey Run Mongolia was a perfect choice.

The Monkey Run <-- Link to their website

We will be Pioneers in this endeavor, meaning Monkey Bikes have never been seen in Mongolia nor raced across the steppes. The map they’ve provided looks suspect, but I suppose that’s part of the adventure!

That 50+ other riders have signed up makes it legit. Rest assured, if we get lost, the Mongolians are known for their hospitality, and it wouldn’t be a bad place to winter over. You are guaranteed that no liability for the consequences of our choices of any kind comes with your generous donation to the Ridgway Community Apiary!

Team Giddy Up will provide a follow-up report here with some photos upon our return after September 25th with one final push for our fundraiser!

Thank you for your generous donation, however large or small. If you’d like to follow us, find us on Facebook and Instagram

The Ridgway Community Apiary is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit under the umbrella of The Southwest Institute for Resilience aka SWIRL, a Colorado nonprofit dedicated to helping small nonprofits like ours become self-sufficient.