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Adventurers combine bicycling and building
NEW MADRID, Mo. - Neil Mullikin described their 10-week adventure as an opportunity to serve others with a great fitness plan included.
Mullikin and 11 others with Fuller Center Biking Adventures made an overnight stop July 12 in New Madrid on their way to serve another homeowner in need. Their day-long bicycle ride from Doniphan, Mo., along back roads and gravel roads was the fitness plan, he spoke about.
Founded in 2005 by Millard and Linda Fuller, the founders of Habitat for Humanity, the Fuller Center is a nonprofit that brings together homeowners and volunteers to build or renovate homes for those who can’t qualify for conventional loans.
Through the Fuller Center Bike Adventure, bicycling is combined with addressing housing needs. This trip was taking participants from California across the United States to North Carolina.
Lucy Hughes, the group’s media intern, explained while New Madrid was just an overnight stop, in nine communities, the bicyclists join other volunteers to improve housing for those in need. Their first four stops found participants painting, putting a new roof on a home, installing flooring and even cleaning a yard of a home a city had threatened to condemn.
“At our most recent (build) in Joplin we were able to put vinyl siding on a man’s house,” Hughes said. “I had never cut vinyl siding but I learned how to do it! We don’t have many skills but we have the manpower to help these people out. That is really important to us.”
She explained on the cross-country trip the number in their group fluctuates. At the start there were 26 bicyclists who dipped their back tires in the Pacific Ocean to signal the beginning of their journey. Some participants will join them for a week’s ride, others for two weeks. Their core group of 12 will make the entire trip and dip their front tires in the Atlantic Ocean, she said.
Other Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure participants can opt for shorter trips and other locations. There is an East Coast tour, one through Florida, another along the Natchez Trace and a fourth that takes riders along the Gulf Coast. However, every ride is focused around building.
For Hughes the trip was not just a chance to earn college credit as an intern, it is a learning experience. She has gained not only carpentry skills but also has taken up cross-country bicycling.
“I’m from Georgia and I had never been west of Alabama before in my life so I thought it was a great opportunity to go and see the country,” she said. “I have learned how to manage media. I have learned how to take pictures of these guys when they are riding, which is not an easy thing to do. It has been a really fun experience.”
As bicycle adventure coordinator for the Fuller Center, Mullikin has participated in trips not only across the U.S. but around the world.
While each trip is different, typically rides bring together participants with half participating for the first time and half returning riders. On the trip through New Madrid, he estimated about 60 percent were first time adventurers.
“What I love to see about new riders is that they have an opportunity to see and meet the families that we serve in the communities. A lot of times they will join for the bike adventure then after they have served the families, they realize they need to come back.”
Riding in their bright orange jerseys emblazoned with the Fuller Center’s name, Mullikin said they also help raise awareness about the Center and its funding needs.
“There are still needs out there,” Mullikin said. “We would love to have people join their local Fuller Center as volunteers.”
More information about the Fuller Center can be found at the website fullercenter.org. Information about the biking adventures is at fullercenterbikeadventure.org.