Cross-country ride raises awareness in the fight against malaria
Episcopal News Service. July 28, 2009 [072809-01]
Lynette Wilson
Eight cyclists riding from sea to shining sea to raise money and awareness for Episcopal Relief and Development's fight against malaria completed their 12-day, 4,000-mile, 13-state journey July 28 when they arrived at the Episcopal Church Center in New York.
On July 17, the last day of the 76th General Convention, the team, led by Bishop Mark Hollingsworth of the Diocese of Ohio, departed Anaheim, California, riding in relay format around the clock.
"This is crazy enough to be really interesting," said Hollingsworth "Once we decided to do it, we decided to do it for a cause."
The "Riding for their Lives" ride raised more than $35,000 for ERD’s NetsforLife® program partnership, which provides insecticide-treated mosquito nets in 17 African countries.
"You have raised and roused awareness for Episcopal Relief and Development and NetsforLife®," said Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori during a reception held for the riders. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
Hollingsworth said he imagined the ride with three goals in mind: raise awareness for the Episcopal Church's ministry, raise money for the life saving mosquito nets and, hopefully, add new contributors to ERD.
Robert Radtke, ERD president, expressed his thanks to the team for "raising awareness for those we serve in Jesus' name."
The team, which included three supporters, survived on homemade beef jerky, granola bars and bananas, and encountered deer, armadillos, jack rabbits, scorpions, and other wildlife along the way. They rode and slept in shifts, and took turns driving a motor home, or recreational vehicle (RV), and Hollingsworth's Toyota Prius.
Despite the high temperatures, physical exhaustion, limited food supply and close quarters (showering in the tiny RV shower), the team managed to avoid arguing, said Carl Petterson, a recent high school graduate and member of Christ Episcopal Church in Hudson, Ohio.
"There were 11 people in a six-person RV; we took that into account," he said.
The Rev. Kelly O'Connell, rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Toledo, Ohio, planned the team's route through California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, keeping mostly to two-lane back roads.
"It was a good route … beautiful. We went around Las Vegas and didn't hit another major city until we rode straight through Cincinnati," O'Connell said, adding that given the starting point in southern California, it was impossible to avoid the desert.
At one point, on the second day, the team had to take a break when temperatures in the desert reached 120 degrees Fahrenheit, O'Connell said in her blog.
Hollingsworth began organizing bike trips when he was a young parish priest and has organized other long-distance rides in the past, including a ride from Columbus, Ohio to Cleveland, Ohio following the 2006 General Convention. All of the riders on the team were experienced riders and spent time training on hills to prepare for the mountains, he said.
O'Connell and Petterson agreed that crossing Utah and the Rocky Mountains were highlights of the trip. Hollingsworth mentioned the plains and riding a levee along the Mississippi River as highlights.
"It was so extraordinarily beautiful seeing the country on a bicycle, rather than on the interstate, riding 15-20 miles per hour on side roads," Hollingsworth said.
The trip was not without incident: Hollingsworth fell one night in Utah when he hit uneven pavement, leaving him bruised; Petterson had a run-in with a car (no injuries) in Pennsylvania; one of the drivers backed the RV into an obstruction, damaging three bicycles, all of which were written about in Petterson's blog.
The cyclists, all from Ohio, included:
- The Rev. Kelly O'Connell, rector of St. Mark's, Toledo, and route planner.
- The Rev. Stephen Sedgwick, rector of the Church of the Redeemer, Lorain.
- The Rev. Daniel Orr, priest-in-charge of St. Paul’s, Fremont.
- Carl Petterson, from Christ Church, Hudson, and recent high school graduate.
- Greg Daniels, an IBM consultant from Christ Church, Hudson.
- Isaac Hollingsworth, the bishop’s son and high school sophomore at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire.
- Michael Obel-Omia, former head of the Upper School of the University School in Cleveland and parishioner at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Heights.
The supporters were:
- The Rev. Gary Mitchener, a retired priest of the Diocese of Ohio, and a massage therapist.
- Erin Kirby, an ERD seminarian coordinator.
- Martha Gardner, an ERD diocesan coordinator and deputy from the Diocese of Newark.