A Different Kind of Ride for Charity

There's something about the idea off covering great distances that brings out the fundraiser in people. If it's not a breast cancer walk, it's an AIDS ride. If not an AIDS ride, a marathon team running for leukemia. The list goes on. I myself did an MS ride, and I have recently written about an 11-year-old who is walking from Tampa, Fla., to Washington, D.C., to raise awareness for youth homelessness.

What all these treks have in common, aside from being fundraisers, is that they are all designed for the able-bodied among us. In each case, our legs carry us toward our charitable goals. Which makes it a refreshing surprise to catch a story about a wheelchair-bound trekker who wants to get in on the action.

Gene Fletcher, a 14-year-old with cerebral palsy and scoliosis, recently motored 100 miles in his wheelchair on his "Trek to Bay Cliff." The journey raised money for Michigan's Bay Cliff Health Camp, where Gene has spent his summers for six years doing daily physical, occupational, speech and music therapies.

The Trek, which took place June 17 to 20, raised over $20,000 for the camp, including $1.68 that a little girl donated from her piggy bank. Gene traveled 25 to 30 miles each day in a caravan of safety vehicles, resting every five miles to let the motor of his wheelchair — a “Street Corpus” by Permobil — cool down. At the finish line waited a cadre of cheering fans and the prospect of another summer at his beloved camp.