Adam will hit the macadam soon.
Adam Kaczmarek, a 19-year-old mechanical engineering sophomore, will cycle from Los Angeles to New York in a 41-day, 3,336-mile trip beginning Monday, June 7 to raise money for the Uniformed Firefighters Association Widow's and Children's Fund.
Kaczmarek's ride is an adjunct to the Fire Department of New York's cross-country ride, which will run from September to October, when Kaczmarek will be back in school. The ride will benefit the families of firefighters who die in the line of duty. Kaczmarek's cousin, Christopher Santora, was a FDNY firefighter who lost his life in the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001.
"I've always wanted to do this, ride cross-country, but I couldn't go with Kyle last year. So I decided to go this summer and raise money for the firefighters," said Kaczmarek, referring to his Theta Chi fraternity brother Kyle Rattray, who made a similar east-west ride last year to raise money for the American Cancer Society.
Peter Gregg, a Cornell University student whose brother Andrew is an MIT Theta Chi member, and Kaczmarek will follow the same route as the firefighters. The two cyclers will try to line up firehouses in which to sleep on some nights. On other nights they'll camp out using equipment they'll carry along.
The MIT News Office will publish an ongoing log of the ride (June 7 to July 17) on its web site at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice. People who want to follow along are encouraged to do so. To make a donation in support of the ride, Kaczmarek asks that you send a check to the FDNY Cross-Country Bike Tour Foundation. See http://fdnycrosscountry.org for more information.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on June 2, 2004 (download PDF).
