Pedal Trans-America 2008: Alex

A message from the Connecticut Burns Care Foundation

Ryan and Dwight hope to raise $10,000 to support the burn camp, which will host 70 children between the ages of 8 and 18. They are determined to reach the West Coast as a personal challenge as well as helping young burn survivors.

Started in 1991, the Arthur C. Luf Children's Burn Camp is located in northern Connecticut on 176 acres. Every summer, burn survivors come to the burn camp, which is a safe and fun environment that helps kids heal emotionally and physically. The Burn Camp is free to the children, who come primarily from the Northeast and some foreign counteries, but any burn survivor child anywhere is welcome. More than 70 adult counselors, primarily active and retired firefighters and burn unit nurses, occupational and physical therapists, child psychologists and even a doctor will serve as mentors for the week.

It's also our goal to promote burn awareness and fire prevention and education, which we do year around. We sponsor a burn survivor, burned in a car accident that involved speeding and drinking alcohol, who speaks to high school students throughout Connecticut. We also support the burn unit at Bridgeport Hospital, helping to purchase equipment.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Alex

We were heading towards Philipsburg, NJ on the border of PA and climbing, what seemed like some pretty big rolling hills...bombing down one of them i saw a beautiful girl walking on our side of the road in the direction we were biking...So I took the opportunity and stopped to ask her for directions...we talked for a bit and after hearing about our trip and learning that we had nowhere to stay that night, she asked if we wanted to stay at her place for the night, which was right on our way west.
So, Dwight and I then climbed Schooley's Mountain, which owned all previous to it (we had to avoid a car muffler that had been stranded on the shoulder of the road). This one was massive. Alex, who lived with her sister Kim, brother-in-law Kenny and two nieces, fed us, made us beds and hung out with us all night by the fire, sharing stories. After a great night, we woke the next morning and she made us breakfast.
It's rare that you meet people like her that would be courageous enough to put up a couple of strangers for the night but even more rare to be introduced to a family of such good people.