Charity Ride Stops In Stanley
Cyclists riding on a 4,000 mile journey stopped in Stanley on Monday, June 22 after a 72-mile ride from Williston. The riders were hosted by Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Stanley before resuming their cross-country journey on Tuesday to a planned stop in Minot.
The number of riders in Stanley was twenty, although the numbers will fluctuate throughout the ride as riders can join for a segment or ride the entire ten weeks. Nineteen riders will be completing the entire ride while there will be up to 28 riders that take part over the course of the ride. That comes as not everyone can commit the full ten weeks to the ride. Riders range in age from 49 to 70 years old.
Mark Kinzer, who lives in Michigan, celebrated his 50th anniversary of his first cross-country bike ride on this trip. He also celebrated his 70th birthday on the same day.
Mark Hance of Ridgefield, CT, flew to Oregon with his wife to start the ride. His wife had retired and he had left employment as well at age 66. They were looking for something to do together. Since his late teens, he had wanted to do a cross-country ride, but life happens. His wife’s cousin told them about a trip he went on from Florida to Oregon, saying it was transformational.
Mark said the idea of biking, community service and traveling with a group led them to find out more. He thinks it was divine intervention as they started making plans in April for this ride that started in April. His wife, Adrienne, was along for the first two weeks as a volunteer. While she was apprehensive to start, she ended up loving it. She will rejoin the group in Michigan and possibly again in Maine.
Highlights along the way including the trip through Glacier National Park, but he also points to the builds. He says you are getting back so much more than you are giving. We are all in service of each other and this helps him to do that. He looks forward to this as a way to give back to others and the communities.
Adventure Coordinator Neil Mullikin started with the Fuller Center Bike Adventure in 2021. He says that these rides are the second largest fundraiser for the Center. Cyclists want to come back on these rides. The largest gift, though, comes from the homeowners they help along the way that then pay it forward to the next family.
He says that when he started his work with the Fuller Center, he felt he was following God’s direction through this cycling ministry. This was his sixth trip to lead and seventh to be part of. He was also the coordinator when the group came through Stanley four years ago. He says that he watches riders as they finish the process of the ride and then return years later as a changed person. It is one of those events where you experience positive changes over a short period of time.
The rides change each year. Next year the ride will go from San Diego, CA to Savannah, GA from late February through May.
As they travel, the goal is to complete 72 to 75 miles per day, while that may fluctuate depending on their next stop. They also try to stop in a community near an airport on the weekends so new riders can join and others can leave the group. They are hosted at most of their overnight stops by churches before they resume their journey early the next morning. They all take off together in the morning, but each rider has their own pace. There are stops provided by their support people every twenty miles.
Along the way, riders will hop off their bikes for build days as they practice what they preach with Fuller Center covenant partners across the nation. The first build project was in Othello, WA, where they worked on a Habitat for Humanity house that needed some upkeep. That included laying sod, yard work, fence repair, water damage repair and installing new fire alarms for the homeowner. They will have their next build in Detroit Lakes, MN.
The group is riding over ten weeks having started in Seaside, Oregon on May 28 and will conclude in Portland, Maine on August 8. They will raise money and awareness for the fight against poverty housing. Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure will roll through 14 northern-tier states for a total of just under 4,000 miles. The ride will touch all five Great Lakes while also visiting such sites as Glacier National Park, Niagara Falls, and the spectacular Pacific and Atlantic coasts.
The Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure was founded in 2008 as a way to raise funds for the Fuller Center for Housing’s work of partnering with families in need to help them have simple, decent places to live through home repairs and new home construction. There are dozens of Fuller Center covenant partners across the United States and in 20 different countries.
Since the inception in 2008, the Adventure has raised more than $7.3 million, with more than 2,200 riders pedaling more than 2 million cumulative miles. Along they way, they have participated in more than 350 Fuller Center builds.
In addition to raising funds for the Fuller Center’s work through the years, the riders have also raised awareness about the nonprofit’s work through speaking engagements, media coverage and simply by talking with people they meet along the way.
You can learn more about the ride at www.FullerCenterBikeAdventure.org.