A group of Western Kentucky University students, led by a Gatton Academy alumnus, will be cycling across the United States this summer to raise money for Alzheimer’s research.
The Fijis Across America fundraiser is being conducted in memory of Barrett Cummings, the grandfather of ride founder and WKU student Tyler Jury of Elizabethtown. Jury is a 2008 alumnus of the Gatton Academy.
The group hopes to raise $75,000 to benefit the Greater Kentucky/Southern Indiana Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association and to increase local, state and national awareness as the students ride about 3,200 miles from California to Virginia.
The ride will begin in late May in Oceanside, Calif., and end in July in Yorktown, Va. The students will travel through nine states – California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Virginia. (Click here for the route.)
In addition to Jury, riders include Chaz Vittitow of Louisville, Mitchell White of Bowling Green, Justin Cave of Glendale and Wade Haga of Lexington.
The students have been working for several months to organize the ride. Last fall, riders attended Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walks in cities across Kentucky, including Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, Louisville and Lexington, to promote the trip. They are currently seeking corporate and individual sponsorships.
More information about the trip, including a link to the group’s Facebook page, is available online at http://fijisacrossamerica.com/
For information, contact Tyler Jury at (270) 766-7121.