“About a year and a half ago, I was riding in the car and I heard about a director of an agency who was talking about climbing Mount Everest to raise money. I thought, I don’t want to climb Mount Everest, because that’s not my cup of tea, but it got me thinking, what could I do that might get people to note what I’m doing? That’s when I came up with the Life Without Limits Ride 2 D.C. On Wednesday, we start our ride. The emphasis of the ride is to build awareness on the needs of all people with disabilities, and the fact that the needs are not going away, the money to pay for them is. This ride is to heighten the awareness of what people need and what they aren’t getting. The money from this trip goes directly to provide services for people in the Chippewa Valley and surrounding areas. We are making 5 stops, leaving from Sport Motors Harley-Davidson in Chippewa Falls, and ending in D.C. Each city we are stopping in has UCP affiliates. We’ve talked to those affiliates and they are helping to various degrees. People are going to ask us what we are doing, and I’m going to tell them. This is the first year of the ride. The intent is to do it again. I’ve been involved with the disabled community for over 30 years. I worked for a company called Accessible Space, which built accessible, affordable multi-family housing for people with disabilities. I’m a head injury survivor. I could have had the same kind of need, and maybe had the same difficulty getting services, so I want to help as much as I can. We’ve done pretty good on fundraising. We have a goal of $25,000 and we’ve raised about $11,000 so far. The whole idea is to build more awareness, and that’s our goal with this ride.”