It’s almost time to ride!



Hey, folks! The second annual WinShape Ride for Families is just a couple of weeks away, and if you know anything about me, you know I’m like a kid at Christmastime waiting for October 8! That’s when we’ll kick-off the Ride in Peachtree City, Georgia and then take riders on a 7-day motorcycle adventure through Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee before ending back in Atlanta on October 14 at Chick-fil-A Headquarters!

Here are a few things riders can look forward to this year: 


Along the way, riders will not only experience the beauty of God’s great creation, we’ll also have lunch at a racetrack, enjoy some quality time, maybe take in a cooking class, attend the Great Date Night in Chattanooga, visit foster families at WinShape Homes, spend a night at WinShape Retreat, explore the Music City, the Magic City and even the Chattanooga Choo-Choo.

Not to mention all the barbecue, soul food (and Chick-fil-A) you can eat!

I hope you will join me in praying for all of the riders who are participating in the WinShape Ride this year, but also for the many individuals, families and communities that we’ll meet along the way.

And it’s not to late to join us! If you’d like to ride with us, click here for more information. But hurry! We’re rolling out soon!


- Bubba

Bubba Cathy is Senior Vice President of Chick-fil-A, Inc. and President of Dwarf House, Inc. Bubba is responsible for the administration of the Dwarf House and Truett’s Grill concepts which presently operate 14 locations in metro Atlanta. Bubba also oversees WinShape Homes®, long-term foster homes, WinShape Wilderness, a team building program, and WinShape Retreat, a marriage enrichment center. Make sure you visit CathyFamily.com to learn more about Bubba and to read the Family’s blog.

Registration is now open and there are limited spots available, so please take a moment to visit the Contact Us page and then submit your application today!

  Sponsorship opportunities are still available. If you would like to be a part of this incredible journey with us, please consider becoming a WinShape Ride for the Family sponsor. Check out some of our incredible partners and sponsors by clicking here. And contact us if you’d like more information.

Attention Riders! The 2011 WinShape Ride for the Family updated route Information has been posted here. Take a few moments to familiarize yourself with the beautiful and exciting places we’ll be visiting this year!

Come back soon and often for news and updates about the 2011 Ride. We can’t wait to get rolling…

We are thrilled to announce the dates for our second annual WinShape Ride for Families, October 8-14, 2011! This exciting 7-day motorcycle adventure will take riders on scenic routes throughout the southeast, inspiring communities and celebrating strong marriages and families along the way.

To participate, riders are asked to make a donation to the Marriage & Family Foundation. Spouses may ride on the back of the motorcycles at no charge.

Make plans now to join us on this life-changing journey, and check back soon and often for more updates on the routes we’ll take in 2011.

When:
October 8 – 14

Where:
Riders will travel through Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee

Overnight Stays:
Sat, October 8 – Peachtree City, GA
Sun, October 9 – Birmingham, AL
Mon, October 10 – Florence, AL
Tues, October 11 – Chattanooga, TN
Wed, October 12 – Nashville, TN
Thurs, October 13 – Rome, GA
Fri, October 14 – Conclude @ CFA Headquarters

Marriage and family expert Gary Oliver has said: “As goes marriages so goes the family. As go families so goes the community. As go the communities so goes the nation. As go the nations so go civilizations.”

Family is a core building block of society. We hope you’ll make a step toward bettering your community and our nation, starting with making your own marriage and family a priority. Wondering where to start? Here are a few ideas:

• Make dinnertime a priority. Only half of all American families eat dinner together every night, but children who eat with their families daily are shown to be healthier and happier and perform better in school.
• Encourage your family. How do you know if a family member needs encouragement? Truett Cathy always answers that question with: “if he or she is breathing.”
• Take the marriage checkup. Visit www.couplecheckup.com to fill out a relationship assessment that will give you a report and discussion guide to help you strengthen your relationship.

We hope you enjoyed following the WinShape Ride online this year and encourage you to consider joining us on the road next year. Look for more information about next year on this site soon!

We will post more information about the 2011 Ride in the future.  Check back for details.

The retreat facilities are first-class, and it’s easy to understand why it’s the perfect setting for the WinShape Marriage retreats that are held here throughout the year. The Cathy family started WinShape Marriage out of their desire to see healthy marriages and strong families.

WinShape Marriage encourages the marriage movement in our country by bringing marriage ministries and leaders together for fellowship and collaboration. This Ride is an example of that kind of collaboration, as we supported organizations in the communities we visited.

Truett and Jeannette Cathy celebrated 62 years of marriage this year. The Cathy family believes this strong marriage has been one of the driving forces behind the entire family’s commitment to service. In order to be a positive influence on the world around you, you must first be a positive influence on the home in which you live.

This week we’ve had several people ask us what makes a good marriage. Well, there is no exact formula for a good marriage. There are no perfect people, so there are no perfect marriages. But a marriage will work if you work it – no matter what stage it’s in.

“Love will find a way to follow when you run,” as Steve Green says in one of his songs. It was a special treat for us to have Steve Green perform at WinShape Retreat last night for the riders and our guests. We were happy to have students from the WinShape College program, parents from the Rome WinShape Homes and some of our Rome Operators join us for dinner and the concert.

Today will conclude the first-ever WinShape Ride for the Family, as we head back to the Chick-fil-A Home Office. We hope we’ve planted seeds of hope for the lifelong marriages and supporting families that we desire, and are possible when we make them a priority. It has been quite a memorable journey. Thanks for following us!

We left Knoxville yesterday still energized from last night’s sold out Great Date Night. To arrive at our lunch spot on Fontana Lake, we had to conquer the famous 11-mile stretch of highway called the Tail of the Dragon. With 318 curves, we had our work cut out for us, but every rider made it to Fontana Lake safe and ready to refuel our stomachs and our bikes.

When we pulled into the fuel stop in Cleveland, Tenn., we had some very special guests there to greet us. Children and parents from some of the WinShape Homes in Tennessee had come out with the local Operators to cheer us along on our Ride. WinShape Homes was founded by Truett Cathy in 1987 to provide a loving, nurturing home to children who are victims of circumstance and need a stable, secure family environment in which to grow and mature. We appreciated their encouragement after a long day of riding.

We ended the day in Chattanooga for the second Great Date Night event. Similar to Monday’s event in Knoxville, this program was put together by Chick-fil-A Operators in Chattanooga and First Things First. First Things First was started in 1997 by a group of civic leaders who came together to form a community-wide initiative to rebuild, renew and revitalize Chattanooga, beginning with the family.

We are doing the WinShape Ride because, like First Things First, we believe that strong families are the foundation of a successful society. Some of our nation’s most prevalent problems, such as poverty, drug abuse and domestic violence, are the unfortunate outcome of fragmented families. If we make our families a priority now, we can lay the groundwork for generations of strong families and communities.

At the end of the Great Date Night event, the WinShape Ride presented a $25,000 check to help continue First Things First’s efforts to reverse the trend of destructive relationships and to strengthen families in Chattanooga. We are proud to support their important work.

Today, we are heading back to Georgia, where we will be visiting WinShape Retreat in Rome, Ga. Thanks for a great ride and two Great Date Nights, Tennessee!

We enjoyed taking in the colors of fall as we traveled down the winding mountain roads of North Carolina yesterday. The cool air and the warm sunshine made for a very enjoyable fourth day on the WinShape Ride for the Family.

We stopped at Biltmore for lunch, and enjoyed touring the home and taking in the spectacular views of the mountains. Several Asheville Chick-fil-A Operators joined us for lunch including Gail Meadows, who also works at Biltmore. Gail and her husband Larry have operated a Chick-fil-A store since 1977!

Last night was the first of two “Great Date Nights” that the WinShape Ride is participating in. The sold-out event at the Knoxville Civic Auditorium served as a reminder of why it’s so important to make our families a priority.

Chick-fil-A Founder Truett Cathy once said, “I’d like to be remembered as one who kept my priorities in the right order. We live in a changing world, but we need to be reminded that the important things have not changed, and the important things will not change if we keep our priorities in proper order.”

We heard several great speakers share concrete ways to make family a priority at the Knoxville Great Date Night. The event was put on by Chick-fil-A and the Knoxville Homefront Alliance. This new organization is a coalition of churches, businesses, organizations, and community leaders that have united to strengthen marriages and families as the foundation of success for the development of children and the stability of Knoxville.

The WinShape Ride participants were pleased to present a check for $25,000 to the Homefront Alliance to help grow the organization’s work and influence in the Knoxville community.

We’ll enjoy more time in Tennessee today as we head to Chattanooga!

We watched a beautiful sunrise over the ocean in Myrtle Beach yesterday before heading out for our third day of riding. It was a cloudy morning as we left town, but we were blessed with dry roads and cool fall air for the rest of day.

We had lunch at Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer, N.C.  The faculty shared about the school’s Marriage and Family Therapy program and their community clinic.  The program is designed to prepare servant leaders as family therapists and agents of change through their work in marriage and family therapy. Bubba Cathy presented a check on behalf of the WinShape Ride to the clinic director to support the affordable therapy services they provide to the community.

The WinShape Ride is a fun, creative way to garner attention on the topic of marriage and family in the communities we visit, but the real work is being done by the organizations like the one we learned about today. The Pfeiffer faculty and students were such an encouragement to us, and we hope our visit was an encouragement to them as well to keep up the good work!

We ended the day in Boone, N.C., home of Samaritan’s Purse. Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, and the Samaritan’s Purse team hosted us for a delicious dinner at the organization’s headquarters. The Samaritan’s Purse staff also gave us the honor of taking part in packing some of the first shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. It was a very special evening.

We’re going to get an early start tomorrow on our way to Knoxville, Tenn. We will be taking part in the sold-out Great Date Night at Knoxville Civic Auditorium.

We left Georgia yesterday and traveled into South Carolina for our second day of riding.

Our group includes motorcyclists from across the country, who are participating in the WinShape Ride to cast a vision of hope for the future of marriage and family. It was a pleasure to see some South Carolina Chick-fil-A restaurant Operators at our gas stops and on the side of the road encouraging us with signs, Cows and waves.

The Myrtle Beach Operators put together a great event for us during lunch. We were honored to have Rep. Alan Clemmons and Rep. Tim Scott (pictured) join us for the lunch event.

Rep. Scott shared a piece of his moving story with us, which was an encouraging example of the importance of having family members and mentors invest in the lives of young people. Rep. Scott says that the late John Moniz, a Chick-fil-A Operator, changed the course of his life through their mentor relationship and Chick-fil-A sandwiches!

Now we’re heading off to North Carolina. Look for us on the road between Myrtle Beach and Boone, N.C.!

From left to right: Dan Cathy, Rep. Alan Clemmons, Rep. Tim Scott and Bubba Cathy.