Sarah Langenkamp's Bike Safety Memorial Fund

Along with donations to the Debbink Family Foundation, we have raised more than $315,000, and new donations come every day. Thank you!

Please see the update below on legislation to be named after Sarah, a meeting with Pete, media coverage, and more.

Also, not included in the update: Our first transfer of donated funds -- $75,000 to the Washington Area Bicyclist Foundation -- was part of a matching campaign that resulted in $30,00 in additional donations!

Happy holidays to you and yours. Ours is a somber one, but your support has given us so much to be thankful for.

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We just passed $300,000! THANK YOU for your generosity. Please see the Nov. 27 update below.

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Friends--It's not too late to register for Ride for Your Life: https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/rideforyourlife/. You can ride the 10-mile route from Wood Acres Elementary, join us at Freedom Plaza, near the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue, or just show up at the rally at the Capitol Reflecting Pool. Help us reduce the number of crashes that kill moms, colleagues, and friends like Sarah. Represent cyclists and pedestrians across the country.

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Sarah Debbink Langenkamp was tragically killed on Thursday, August 25, while riding home from our sons' new elementary school in Bethesda, Maryland. Sarah was the mother of our two young sons and a U.S. Diplomat with the State Department for 17 years. We had just moved to Bethesda after our evacuation from Ukraine. There, she had been in charge of programs to help the country's anti-corruption institutions and shepherd millions of dollars in U.S. assistance to police, border guards, and other non-military security institutions.

Her ride that day, planned on her cell phone, took her on designated bike routes through residential neighborhoods and the Washington-Bethesda Capitol Crescent trail. For a few hundred yards, it took her along River Road -- a busy commercial route where a bike lane competes with cars and industrial traffic for space as the road becomes State Highway 190.

Friends know that our commitment to biking is linked to our deep belief in living a life that is healthy, humble, and green. Sarah did not need to show the world she was a successful professional, diplomat, leader, and role model. Her grace, intelligence, kindness, and deep commitment to promoting U.S. interests around the world was shown in her work and actions. To carry out this important mission, Sarah rode a bike -- almost every day.

Sarah and I have been lifelong and committed cyclists and regularly commuted to work all over the world, including in Ukraine, Côte d'Ivoire and Washington, D.C. During this period, we have seen how cities all over America, and the world, increasingly boast of making their cities "walkable and bikeable." At the same time, we are seeing how the statistics show that cyclist and pedestrian deaths are climbing all over the country. Make no mistake--there is a driver and a company that is primarily responsible for Sarah's death, and our search for accountability is important. It is not enough to prevent future deaths, however.

This fundraising effort aims to work with local and national cycling safety organizations to advocate for safer bike routes, including this particular stretch of road. If cities truly wish to make themselves walkable and bikeable to attract workers and talent, they need to do more than paint lines and bike symbols on roads. Without strong laws and law enforcement, proper bike lane protection, truck/auto driver education, and safer trucking regulations -- such lanes are only death traps, luring innocent victims like Sarah toward them. They result in tragic deaths that leave children without parents and the world without its most talented and committed individuals. Cities should not boast of having "bike lanes" when bikers are needlessly and repeatedly killed on them, as they have been this year.

I have created this account with an ambitious goal of $50,000 to help organizations already working on bike safety. I am doing this because I am furious about Sarah's death, and I am personally committed to ensuring our mission to increase bike safety is realized. Our aim will be to conduct government advocacy, raise public awareness, hire legal assistance, and improve driver education. We will strive to develop innovative tech solutions to create a world where bikers are safer. These could include apps that rate the safety of bike routes, alert bikers of locations where accidents have occurred, or simply note routes that are unsafe. It could also include the development of vehicle sensors to warn of the presence of a biker on a road.

At the same time, I hope our many friends, family, and others who care about community safety will commit today in Sarah's name. Ultimately, we can ensure that Sarah Langenkamp's tragic and utterly needless death will not have been in vain.