By By MARCIA STEFFENS / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS -- Stopping for a cup of coffee at the BP gas station on M-60 Friday morning, Bob Wagel, chairman of the Cass County Board of Commissioners, spied two cyclists in matching T-shirts and helmets.
The two are averaging about 90 miles a day on a cross country trip to Cape Cod, Mass., starting May 29 from San Francisco, Calif.
Ryan Nelson told Wagel his father made a cross-country trip 30 years ago.
Cycling for a Healthy Heart, the two have already raised their $10,000 goal supporting the American Heart Association (AHA).
Their trip can be followed on their Web site: www.cycleforheart.com with a place to leave a message and read a journal of their travels.
If you visit their Web site you can read of the travels and interesting experiences, such as they had in South Dakota, when some members of a Native American reservation took off with Tim's cell phone while he had plugged it into a charger.
Nelson, 20, just finished his second year at Dickinson College, where he is an international business major.
He is a member of the Red Devil football team, Dickinson Christian Fellowship and a drummer on his church worship team.
Ryan is a graduate of Spring Grove Area High School in Spring Grove, Pa. He also played tennis and baseball. He has traveled to Guatemala and India numerous times on missions trips with his family. His hobbies are sports, playing the guitar, hunting and fishing and hanging out with friends. His parents are Ed and Sue Nelson of East Berlin, Pa.
Tim Glatfelter just finished his sophomore year at Albright College in Reading, Pa. He is a business major with a concentration in finance and economics. While at Albright, he enjoys announcing the footballs games over the college's radio station. He has also played tennis for Albright. Tim graduated from Spring Grove Area Senior High School in Spring Grove, Pa. where he played varsity football and tennis. Tim is the son of George and Beverly Glatfelter. Tim enjoys the outdoors. He loves to hunt, fish, take wildlife photos, and of course bike.
Their mission is to make everyone aware that heart disease is the number one killer in the United States, and strokes follow in a close third. This year alone, these conditions will kill over 650,000 Americans. The numbers are quite depressing when you consider that many of these deaths are preventable, they say. They want to promote a healthy lifestyle. Their choice was the AHA, which they say has been making an enormous impact since 1924 in promoting prevention, research, and providing for those inflicted with these ailments with millions of dollars in aid.