Greetings everyone. I hope you all had great Independence Day weekend with your family and friends. I spent mine driving 8 and a half hours up to Michigan (1.5 hrs in bumper to bumper traffic on I-94) on Friday morning to see my family and some old high school & college friends. It was worth the trip as I spent time catching up with them since I haven’t seen some for over a year. I did bring my bike with me and was able to get some riding in while I was in Michigan. As I rode out to the rustic country side, I got to thinking how much I miss riding up there. It’s not so much the routes, but the memory of camaraderie with my former riding buddies from my old bike club. That’s one of the reason why I ride. I’m sure some of you might be riding for a different reason. Like one of our newest member Brian Coffey.
Brian told me he joined the IVW last month to reap the benefit of group rides as he is training for his first century later on this summer. He only been cycling since last August for the sole purpose of supporting JDRF Ride. He explained to me JDRF is Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation which he is very passionate about. His 3 children, Sarah, age 19, Emily, age 15 & Matthew, age 13, all live with type 1 diabetes for most of their lives. He wanted to do his part to bring awareness to this serious disease which affect more people than we realized. Brian’s son Matthew also joined te JDRF Ride program this year as he is training to do a 30 mile ride in August up in La Crosse, WI with his father. To learn more about Brian and Matthew’s story, click on the links below.
Brian
