Today was quite the hectic and emotional day. I actually didn't ride my bike today and instead drove the lunch van. For those of you who don't know how it works, there are two support vans that are attached to each 4K team. The water van is responsible for marking the routes for the bikers as well as providing regular water and snack stops. The lunch van, which is the one I drove, sets up lunch for the bikers (donated from local businesses as well as hosts), and carries all of the luggage to the next host. Brady (http://4kforcancer.org/profiles/brady-stroh/) and I started the morning as expected, going from local business to local business, asking for donations. But things got a like crazier when the weather turned for the worst and the ride was called off for the day due to thunder / lightening, as well as the extreme cold that set on from the rain. Brady and I drove all the way to our hosts for the night and dropped off everyone's luggage as humanly fast as possible, to make room for the riders and their bikes. We picked up about five riders and their bikes at a local gas station / Domino's Pizza combo (who would have thought? But thanks to Domino's for donating pizza to our riders who were waiting). Brady and I were relieved they were okay, albeit quite cold from being wet. We cranked up the heat in the van (an odd thing to have to do in mid June) and they warmed up quite nicely.
The first of the two most memorable moments of the day came soon after, however. Brady and I kept on hearing about how the rest of the riders were holing up in a "garage on Arnold Street". We really had no clue what that meant, and frankly I was kind of afraid that the riders were in some sketchy abandoned warehouse or something, shivering and starving. But when we arrived at the address we were given, we found instead that the kind Pierce Family had taken in all of our riders, offered them warm clothing, buckets of warm water to heat them, and just shown more kindness than could ever be expected. The only thing our riders had asked was to wait out the storm under the porch, but instead the Pierce Family took in a bunch of wet, cold and probably smelly (sorry guys... but you know it's true) strangers into their home. I'm not certain on all of the details of what happened, but what's important is that the Pierce Family really saved the day and we can't thank them enough for it. The kindness of strangers towards other strangers continues to amaze us all...
The second memorable moment came at our hosts, the Berean Baptist Family Church in Mansfield, OH. After amazing meal (featuring equally delicious grilled chicken and veggie burgers... not sure where the chicken went but kind of craving some right now it was oh so good), Pastor David and his wife Sharon told us the story of their youngest son Jonathan and his fight against cancer. Having had a son who was always fit and lively and loved the outdoors, Davie and Sharon were shocked when Jonathan came home from college for Christmas, looking gaunt and emaciated. After several doctor's visits, it was determined that Jonathan had stage 4 cancer of unknown primary origin. Although the first stage of chemotherapy was successful and the cancer went into remission, it eventually returned. Jonathan fought cancer for about 15 months before he passed away in 2011 at the age of 23. Through it all Jonathan didn't want to let cancer take over his life, wanting to enjoy as much time with his friends as he could, living life to the fullest int he time he had left. To say the least it is an amazing story that touched us all. I want to thank Pastor David and his wife Sharon for sharing it with us, as well as the entire Berean Church for being amazing hosts.
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