BRAG Dream Team

The BRAG Dream Team is a group of middle school students from cities across Georgia. BRAG sponsors the Dream Team on its annual cross-state bicycle ride in June. Since its inception in 1994, an average of 10 middle school students from low-income families have been selected to participate on the Dream Team and have received bicycles, helmets, shorts and other accessories, complimentary meals and waived registration fees. The students are assigned adult mentors and coaches who help them for this rigorous ride. If the Dream Team members complete BRAG, they get to keep their bike, helmet and other accessories. Over 100 students from Georgia middle schoolers are proud BRAG Dream Team alumni.

Dream Team Corner March 2009

A seed was planted in 1992 when my friend and flight attendant, Adrienne, shared a Delta magazine article that described BRAG.  After reading it and thinking about my cross state bike rides in Rhode Island and New England in the 1980s, I bragged - "I can do this...if I can find the time off!

"In 1995, I was in North Carolina trying to desperately complete a high ropes course organized by Outward Bound when the instructor told me - "You have reached the end of this course and now you must make a Big Goal, then jump off this platform and swing your way back down to the ground."

The moment of reckoning had arrived - "This is the year I will do BRAG!"

This promise did not mention anything about caring for kids but soon after registering for BRAG my friend and colleague, Jose, asked me - "Do you want to be a mentor for this Dream Team group that we take on BRAG?" Since I had already registered, I said I'm committed to going so if you need an extra hand just call me.  At first, he told me that they had enough mentors but two weeks before BRAG I received a distress call - "We need you because one of the teachers can't ride."  On that BRAG ride from Rome to Augusta, I met Harold Head, Don Doran and Jeff Cramer, the co-founders of the Dream Team who helped Jerry Colley implement his dream of a BRAG program for underserved youth.

In the past fourteen years, I have traveled from a last minute sub to dedicated mentor to Dream Team Coordinator to Dream Team Coach...and led over 125 teenagers on BRAG, Bike South 2000 and RAGBRAI with the help of some dedicated adults, like Kevin, Bruce, Phyllis & Charles, and the list goes on.

Without the luxury of dedicated staff to track Dream Team alumni, we have been blessed to cross paths with our former team members and they are proof that it works.

The perseverance, self-discovery and sense of accomplishment on BRAG has helped many young people survive middle school, thrive in high school and go off to college.

Let's keep the Dream Team alive so that dreams can come true again and again and again!

Coach Atiba

Atiba Mbiwan is a professional in the philanthropy field (Associate Director of The Zeist Foundation) when he is not volunteering for BRAG.

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