Mountain to Mountain

Being inspired to act can take many forms. For some it's taking a weekend to volunteer, but for Shannon Galpin, it meant leaving her career, selling her house, launching a nonprofit and committing her life to advancing education and opportunity for women and girls. Focusing on the war-torn country of Afghanistan, Galpin and her organization, Mountain2Mountain, have touched the lives of hundreds of men, women, and children. Beyond launching a nonprofit, Galpin became the first woman to ride a mountain bike in Afghanistan in 2009. Now she's using that initial bike ride to gain awareness around the country, encouraging people to use their bikes "as a vehicle for social change and justice to support a country where women don't have the right to ride a bike."

In her memoir Mountain to Mountain, Galpin describes her first forays into fundraising, her desire to help women and girls halfway across the world, her love for adventure and sports, and her inspiration to be so much more than a rape victim. During her numerous trips to Afghanistan, Shannon reaches out to politicians and journalists as well as everyday Afghans—teachers, prison inmates, mothers, daughters—to cross a cultural divide and find common ground. She narrates harrowing encounters, exhilarating bike rides, humorous episodes, and the heartbreak inherent in a country that is still recovering from decades of war and occupation.