Fuller Center bike adventure makes stop in Winner

By Dan Bechtold

Editor

A group of people are cycling from coast to coast this summer with a  purpose: helping people struggling to have affordable housing.

For 14 years, the Fuller Center for Housing has hosted a bicycle adventure. This year the bike ride stopped in Winner on July 6. The 12 riders stayed at the Methodist Church in Winner and were on the road early last Wednesday morning.

Over 10 weeks the Fuller Center Bike Adventure will experience the country from Amelia Island, Fla., to Florence, Ore., on Oregon’s famous coastline.

The ride started May 28 and will end Aug. 8 covering 3,750 miles.

The riders, most of them retired individuals, come from various locations and all walks of life.

Neil Mullikin, bike adventure coordinator, said each rider had a  fundraising requirement in order to go on this adventure.

The group gets donations from people along the way. “We have had donations from people who saw us in a newspaper story or on TV,” said Mullikin.

As they were traveling from Parkston to Winner, they had some individuals stop them in Platte and give them a donation of $50.

Built into this ride are six build days where they stop and help a family fix up a home.

The group has worked on everything from flooring, wheelchair ramp, painted a home and roofing.

The closest build to South Dakota was in Kansas City where they group actually worked on two homes.

A requirement of the riders is they have to be able to ride 12 miles an hour. There is a support van and car that make sure  the riders are safe.

Mullikin explained the ride is different for each individual. Some like the challenge of the ride and others like the help they are able to give people.

“It is the families we help that makes the biggest impact on our riders,” said the ride coordinator.

Mullikin says he enjoys cycling. He works full-time for the Fuller Center in Georgia. Prior to joining the Fuller Center he worked as a financial advisor.

“I felt this was a calling the Lord led me to and so I joined Fuller Center in March,” he said.

Tony Drake, another rider, is a retired registered nurse from Flagstaff, Ariz. He has been involved in healthcare for over 40 years in California and Arizona. He started out working in mental health for five year and the last 25 years has been working in emergency rooms and intensive care units.

For 36 years, he worked on the Navaho Reservation. “I have a good understanding of people who live in poverty.  I feel very blessed to be on this type of adventure. I feel like I am doing something and making a difference for people.”

Drake is fascinated by the people he meets on the build days.  “They are very grateful for the work we are doing,” he said.

One particular project sticks out in his mind  and one he will remember for the rest of his life. He said there was a man who had stage 4 cancer and he life in this home in Georgia with his wife. When a person asked what they could do for him he said “I would like for the rain not to come down on my wife’s head in he bedroom. I would like for my wife to not fall through a hole in the kitchen floor.”

Drake explained that prior to the biker’s arrival, work had been done on this house to fix the roof and flooring. The bike riders painted the exterior of the home.

“This man and woman were so grateful for the work we had done. When we were leaving they were hugging us and the wife was weeping. This is an experience that stays with you the rest of your life,” said Drake.

Another rider is Randi Topps, Orlando, Fla., who has been an elementary physical education teacher for 33 years. She is still teaching in Orlando.  

This is her second bike adventure with the Fuller Center. Previously, she went on a trip through Florida.

But she had always wanted to ride a bike across the country. She started looking into different agencies that lead tours across the United States. She felt many were too commercial. “I wanted a reason to go and I wanted some kind of benefit. When I found the Fuller Center I found what I was looking for,” she said.

The bike rider noted in Orlando affordable housing is hard to find. “People live in homes that are in terrible condition because that is all they can afford.”

Topps enjoyed cycling her entire life and just took it up again seven years ago.

“I love the scenery, I love seeing the country from the perspective of a bike; you hear the sounds and smell the smells,” she said.

Topps explained she has gotten a lot out of this bike ride. She has met new friends and has been able to help people she has ever met in her life. That is the joy of this ride for her.

The purpose of the cross country bike ride is to raise money and awareness for the Fuller Center for Housing, whose international office is in Americus, Ga.

According to the organization’s web  site, the Fuller Center for Housing is a faith-based and Christ-centered organization that promotes collaborative and innovative partnerships with individuals and organizations in an unrelenting quest to provide adequate shelter for people in need.