National EMS Memorial Bike Ride takes off in Roanoke
ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) — Sunday, May 5 marked day one of the National EMS Memorial Bike Ride for the Southern Route, the first route of the year. The 24th annual ride is to honor EMS workers who lost their lives in the line of duty.
On Sunday morning, a group gathered at the Carilion Clinic’s Lifeguard helicopter hangar for the opening ceremony. Around 9 a.m., they began their seven-day journey to Myrtle Beach.
“This year, I am riding for a man who was in EMS since he was not able to drive. He was 14 when he got into the ambulance, and he dedicated his life to EMS,” said Lisa Johnson, a memorial biker from The Villages, Florida.
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Lisa Johnson has participated in the National EMS Memorial Bike Ride since 2007. Throughout the years, she has kept dog tags of EMS workers she knew and wanted to honor.
“He worked in almost every EMS service in Massachusettes, and I just thought this was the best way to honor him,” said Johnson.
She was joined by 16 other bikers on Sunday, as well as other EMS professionals from around the region, as they honor the 83 EMS honorees who died this year.
“I’m actually riding for a personal friend of mine who passed away on the job, he had a medical event while he was working,” Eric Morrison, a North Carolina biker and a National EMS Memorial Bike Ride board member. “I’m here riding with his dog tag to help show his family and to help show our coworkers that people remember him, that his sacrifices mattered, and that he mattered.”
The group set out Sunday morning to travel approximately 500 miles, through hills and valleys, to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. During the bike ride, each rider carries two dog tags with the honorees’ names.
The group will make stops at EMS stations along the way to meet the families of those who’ve fallen in the line of duty. Some will present dog tags to the honorees’ relatives.
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“When things get hard like today with the hills and climbs, especially just outside of Blacksburg – cause it gets really really hilly – all you have to do is reach down, touch these – look down and see them – and that gives you the motivation because this is why we’re doing it,” said Hope Lineberry, Southern Route Coordinator with the National EMS Memorial Bike Ride.
The coordinator says, that while it’s been a while since the route came through the area, they decided to start in Roanoke this year to pay homage to the birthplace of the first volunteer rescue squad nationwide.
Lineberry said every day, riders will ride anywhere from 64 to 100 miles. Organizers say the ride also honors the physical and mental load current EMS workers take on every day.
“We tell all riders – it’s not how far you ride or how fast you ride. It’s why you’re riding it,” said Lars Granholm, the president of the National EMS Memorial Bike Ride. “You’ll have very sore muscles, sore other parts of your body that you don’t even think about sometimes. But you wake up the next day and you want to keep doing it until you reach that finish line.”
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Sunday’s ride was one of five long-distance rides that will be held throughout the year to honor EMS workers. The Southern Route riders will be combining with six more cyclists from the South Carolina Memorial Ride. They plan to end their ride in Myrtle Beach by Saturday.
The National EMS Memorial Ride is also looking to raise $25,000 this year to fund future rides. Granholm said they are starting a preliminary plan for their 25th-anniversary milestone next year. They hope to have the East Coast and Southern Route to meet in Roanoke.
For more information about the organization, click here.
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