Scottville › Prague › October 3, 2026
On October 3, 2026, I ride 111 km in L'Étape Czech by Tour de France to fund Scion Project — youth civic leadership in Scottville, Michigan. Every kilometer gets a sponsor. Every sponsor names a kilometer.
The Whole Idea
Scarcity is a story we've told too long. Abundance is the goal — the practice and the proof. 111 people, six tiers, every kilometer claimed by someone who chooses to invest in what young leaders can build.
The Race
L'Étape by Tour de France is the official amateur edition of cycling's most storied race. The Czech edition rides a flat 111-km course — the kind of distance you don't talk about lightly. I'm training for it the way I train for everything: with a partner and a purpose. The partner this year is you. The purpose is Scion.
The Ledger
111 km. 111 sponsors. When the bar is full, the campaign is funded — and a generation of young civic leaders gets the year they deserve.
Six Tiers · 111 Spots
Why Scion
Vision
The Era of the Best Life: a vibrant community where there are no citizens-in-waiting — only active catalysts of emergence.
Mission
Scion Project equips youth to lead the evolution of the place they call home through active pursuit of civic knowledge and skills — building the next generation of people who know how power works and how to direct it toward the common good.
Funds raised on October 3 underwrite a year of Scion's six-pillar program in Scottville, Michigan — a multi-generational community-building model in which young people don't simulate leadership. They become it.
Proof of Concept
Before Scion Project came home to Scottville it was built as a global model. Through DMB Fit Crew, Founder Lisa Burgess Cooper deployed the same framework — partnership, active pursuit, tangible outcome — to support Thanda Choir in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa.
Working with a network of international charitable partners, the initiative raised funds to build a new rehearsal facility for the choir. Lisa and her crew traveled to Cape Town to form the partnership in person, and a joint team rode in the Cape Town Cycle Tour — demonstrating the Scion tenet that community is built through embodied action.
Leadership
Lisa Burgess Cooper is a masters-level educator, entrepreneur, and leadership