Oceanside CA— A charity bicycle ride featuring a large group of cyclists ranging in age from 15 to 73 are riding from Pacific to Atlantic this summer to raise money for the fight against poverty housing in the 8th Annual Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure, an event that has raised more than $1.1 million for The Fuller Center for Housing, a nonprofit celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
These enthusiastic riders clad in their bright orange jerseys will be arriving in Carlsbad on Friday, June 5, for orientation and will be hosted by Carlsbad’s Faith Community Church, 2700 Rancho Pancho, overnight before dipping their back wheels in the Pacific Ocean off Oceanside on their way to dip their front wheels in the Atlantic Ocean on Aug. 15. While riders will average about 75 miles per day on their bikes, this first day of the ride will be a comparatively mild 37-mile warm-up trek to Temecula.
The 4,000-mile journey from Oceanside to Portland, Maine, is broken up into 10 segments of about one week each. Each segment will have about 40 riders on it at a time, with 24 riders making the entire cross-country trip. In addition to raising money for The Fuller Center, cyclists will stop to work on home repair projects with six different Fuller Center partners along the way.
This year’s volunteer Bicycle Adventure leader is Lydia Huelskamp, a 2014 graduate of Biola University who joined last year’s ride in search of a mere summer adventure, but that adventure became a life-changing experience.
“Last year when I joined the bike adventure I thought I was just signing up for a bike ride,” Huelskamp says. “I soon discovered that it’s so much more than that. I found myself immersed in a such a great community with the other cyclists and the giving people we met all across the country. I knew whether it was a sunny day, a windy day, or a rainy day that each pedal push was worth it. I’m so excited that this year I get the opportunity to lead others through this amazing adventure and see what this bike ride has in store for them.”