Over three days in June for the past 28 years, bicyclists ride 180 miles from Bethel to Belfast in the now-called Trek Across Maine event to raise money for the American Lung Association (ALA). This year, they raised more than $25,000.
Seventy-eight cents of every dollar goes to help fund lung disease research, advocacy, and education, and includes chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/asthma management, smoking cessation programs, and advocacy for stronger clean air standards, according to the ALA. It is the largest event for the ALA nationwide.
The Trek Across Maine helps the 176,840 people in Maine who are living with lung disease, or about 13.3 percent of Maine’s total population; 35 million Americans currently live with lung disease nationwide, according to ALA statistics.
This year, 55 Lincoln County residents rode the Trek, and another 10 volunteered for the event, collectively raising at least $25,175, but probably more, said ALA representative Liz DiMartino, as the donations continue to be tallied. The ALA expects to raise $1.8 million overall from this year’s trek.
Each adult entering the Trek is required to raise $500 in donations, and each child under age 17 must raise $400, but many people raise much more.
The first day of the trek, from Sunday River to University of Maine at Farmington, was a 69.3-mile ride. The weather was sunny with a temperature in the 70s, and bicyclists enjoy the Maine landscape rolling by as they pedal along.
The rest stops every 10 or 20 miles, keep the riders hydrated and fed, and gives them medical help. Vans cruise by and keep track of riders, make sure no one is too tired and those wishing to stop get a ride along with their bike.
It isn’t a race, and people encourage each other as they ride. ‘Great job’ is heard, along with ‘passing on your left.’
At intersections, volunteers clap, cheer and encourage riders on. Sheriff and police assist by directing traffic, and alert drivers of bicyclists’ presence. Local residents along the route cheer, with placards that read ‘thank you!’
At the end of each day trekkers stay in dorms or camp, and get ready for the next day’s ride.
The second day’s ride, 57.3 miles, landed the cyclists at Colby College in Waterville, followed by the third day biking 48.1 miles to Belfast’s waterfront.
Katy Huntington, of Newcastle, on her ninth trek, rode with her son, Luke, 13.
“Luke volunteered for two years at the trek. This year Luke graduated from Great Salt Bay School on Friday, so after we rode the Friday portion of the trek, we drove home for the graduation, and then drove back again to ride on Saturday.”
Veteran trekker Emil Lugosch, of Round Pond, is in his 13th consecutive trek. “I did the trek initially with my son Alex, now 28, when he was only 15 years old. I liked it, so I kept doing it.”
Lugosch remembers when he and son Joe, then 19, did the trek in pouring rain.
“Joe complained, ‘My butt is sore, I’m soaking wet, my seat is a sponge.’ The big, yellow school bus came by to pick people up who wanted to stop riding, and Joe said, ‘I’m gettin’ back on this bike and I’m riding it the whole way. People don’t quit in our family.’ Fifteen-hundred people finished despite the rain,” Lugosch said.
Lugosch said, “I have friends here that I see once a year at the trek. It’s a nice weekend away. And if it’s miserable weather, everyone is miserable with you,” he said laughing.
The commitment people feel toward the cause keeps them coming back: Karen and Sean Moran of Damariscotta; Schuyler and Katrine Belle of Walpole; John C. Harris of South Bristol, with his two grandsons; Janet Fowle and her 14-year-old son Cole Wentworth, of Edgecomb; Chris Hamilton and his 21-year-old daughter Becca, of Whitefield.
Mike Giglia, and his son Nikki Giglia, of Nobleboro, did the trek as a father-son experience. David Atwater, in his ninth year, rode with his daughter Kim, 20.
Debi Hilton, of Damariscotta, rides her bike to work at Cove’s Edge at Miles Hospital, and has participated in the trek for 12 years, and got her cousin Rachel Williamson, 49, of Bremen, to do it with her.
Many have personal stories about loved ones who died of lung cancer or have lung disease; some stories are of those affected who never smoked.
First year trekker, Caitlin Andrews, 29, said her parents convinced her to do the trek. “My grandfather died from lung cancer,” she said.
Originally from Boothbay, and now working in New Hampshire, Andrews ran a smoking cessation clinic in California. “If people can take small steps, that’s important. I also learned that the more a person tries to quit, the more chance they have of succeeding. It’s motivational therapy,” Andrews said.
The statistics on lung disease are startling.
According to the ALA, “in the U.S. tobacco use is responsible for 443,000 deaths annually and costs $193 billion a year in healthcare costs and lost productivity. Big tobacco spends $29 billion per day on marketing designed to appeal to children.
“Every 2.5 minutes someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with lung cancer, and every three minutes someone will die from the disease.
“While smoking remains the most preventable cause of disease and death, 65 percent of new lung cancer diagnoses occur in people who never smoked or in people who quit years or even decades ago. Lung cancer claims more lives each year than breast, colon, and prostate cancer combined, yet less money is spent on lung cancer research than any of them.”
For more information, contact American Lung Association’s New England Chapter: www.lungne.org
For Trek Across Maine (to register or make a donation): www.biketreknewengland.org.
Bicycle Coalition of Maine: www.bikemaine.org.
Questions about lung health: 1-800-LUNGUSA or 1-800-586-4872.
