His six month journey will take him to numerous children's hospitals and past some of America's most amazing destinations.
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Jorg Richter, a former firefighter from Germany, has been riding his bike across America since early-April in an effort to raise awareness for children fighting rare childhood diseases. His epic journey began in San Francisco and is scheduled to finish in mid-September in Connecticut.
During his journey Richter will be stopping at numerous children’s hospitals where he’ll hand out teddy bears from the Care-for-Rare Foundation – an international organization based in Germany created to help children with rare diseases.
The Care-for-Rare Foundation primarily funds research for children with rare diseases so they can gain more efficient access to cutting edge genetic diagnoses and innovative therapeutic methods.
Richter’s ride has a two-fold mission. One, raise awareness for the rare childhood diseases, and two, bring some cheer to the victims of the diseases. Richter gives a teddy bear to each child he meets at the hospitals he visits.
Richter’s ride took him through Page last week. Besides making stops at children’s hospitals Richter has also scheduled in time to visit some of America’s favorite attractions. He visited Zion National Park while passing through St. George, and he visited Horseshoe Bend while visiting Page.
Richter says the favorite part of his trip is America’s wide-open vistas, which to him seem unbelievable.
“America’s wide open, empty horizon are most impressive,” he said. “We don’t have anything like that in Germany. While riding from Milford [Utah] to Delta [Utah] it was just me, an open road and wide open country from horizon to horizon.
“Riding Long Canyon on the Burr Trail was equally impressive. In Germany, if we had uch a road they’d have an entrance fee we’d have to pay to ride through it once.”
While spreading his message of love and hope across America, Richter has been the recipient of a good deal of hospitality and good will himself, most of which has come from firefighters who house him for the night when he passes through their town. The practice started his first night out in Gilroy, Calif., a day’s bike ride from San Francisco
Richter worked as a firefighter in the 90s, and he knew firefighters were a brotherhood, at least in Germany, and he suspected they were in America too.