GCA Supports 'A Ride Against Lymphoma'
27-YEAR-OLD NEW YORK CITY MAN LAUNCHES 4,400-MILE CROSS-COUNTRY BIKE RIDE TO RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT LYMPHOMA
Andrew Ratzlaff lost his father to lymphoma when he was a senior in high school. On Mother’s Day, he begins a 4,400-mile bike ride with the hoping of raising awareness about the disease along with donations
for the Lymphoma Research Foundation
His first night will be at Pleasant Acres Farm Campground in Sussex, N.J.
NEW YORK CITY, April 29, 2010 – Unlike most of us, 27-year-old Andrew Ratzlaff actually bicycles to work every day, in his case, from an apartment in Manhattan’s Upper East Side to Rockefeller Center, where he works as a freelance video editor for a local television station.
A Fine Arts major, Ratzlaff fell in love with bicycling while studying for his degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder, one of the most bike friendly cities in the world.
Not only is Ratzlaff living his dream, biking to work each day in the biggest television market in the country, but he’s confident enough to take several weeks off work beginning May 9th so that he can bicycle 4,400 miles across the country to raise awareness and support for the Lymphoma Research Foundation.
“I just found out the Lymphoma Research Foundation recently,” said Ratzlaff, who lost his father to lymphoma 10 years ago while he was a senior in high school.
In addition to funding research to develop better treatment options and ultimately a cure for lymphoma, the foundation provides a helpline and national support network that connects patients and families with volunteers that have experience with the same type of lymphoma as well as the various treatments and challenges associated with lymphoma, a form of blood cancer that can develop in the lymph nodes, spleen, bone marrow and other body organs.
Ratzlaff said his family would have taken advantage of the Lymphoma Research Foundation’s services 10 years ago if they had known they existed. “In nine months, we watched my Dad basically fall apart,” Ratzlaff said. “That was the hardest thing for me and my family.”
But Ratzlaff said he is impressed with the work the foundation has done and the support its volunteers provide to families with loved ones who are suffering from lymphoma.
“After doing some research and talking with them, I found them to be a valuable organization that I am proud to support and discuss,” Ratzlaff said, adding that more people could benefit from the foundation’s work if it were better known and had more funding. “So I’m doing my part to help them,” he said.
Ratzlaff has been planning his cross-country bike ride for nearly a year, and he’s saved up $2,000 to cover his costs. But his efforts are also being backed by campgrounds affiliated with GoCampingAmerica.com, many of which are providing him with free camping and cabin accommodations as he makes his cross-country journey.
“Our members strongly support Andrew and his efforts to raise funding for the Lymphoma Research Foundation,” said Linda Profaizer, president and CEO of the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds, which operates the GoCampingAmerica website. More than 30 campgrounds had already committed tent sites and cabin accommodations for his trip as of late April, she said.
Ratzlaff will be riding a Specialized Allez Elite 2010 18-speed bicycle, which weighs about 20 pounds. His rear panniers, which weigh about 9 pounds, will be filled with about 40 pounds of supplies, including a tent, sleeping bag, water purifier, camp stove, clothing, bike parts and tools.
He will begin his cross-country ride at 7 a.m. May 9th on the corner of 76th Street and 1st Avenue in Manhattan and will follow a route that takes him through some of the most scenic areas of the country, including Yellowstone National Park. Some days he’ll ride 100 miles in a single day, while others he expects to complete only 30. His daily mileage will reflect the terrain, weather conditions as well as his physical condition. He expects to finish the trip in San Francisco in mid- or late July, where he expects to rendezvous with friends and family members.
“The Rockies will obviously be challenging,” he said, adding that Trail Ridge Road in Colorado, which climbs from 7,522- to 12,183 feet in roughly 20 miles, will be the toughest climb. “I also think that Kansas will throw some pretty nasty weather in my direction,” he said.
To follow Ratzlaff’s route, please visit www.GoCampingAmerica.com, which has a section devoted to his trip that highlights some of the campgrounds he will be visiting along his trip as well as Ratzlaff’s blog site at www.arideagainstlymphoma.blogspot.com. To coordinate interviews with Ratzlaff or to obtain information about the campground industry’s support for his cross-country ride against lymphoma, please contact Kera Tomlin using the contact information listed below and visit www.GoCampingAmerica.com.
For more information about the Lymphoma Research Foundation and its work, please visit www.lymphoma.org and contact Taylor Zitay using the contact information provided below.
Taylor Zitay
Lymphoma Research Foundation
(646) 465-9103
tzitay@lymphoma.org
Linda Profaizer or Kera Tomlin
National Association of RV Parks & Campgrounds
(303) 681-0401
lprofaizer@arvc.org or ktomlin@arvc.org
Get more infomation about Andrew below:
Following is contact information for the campgrounds where Andrew Ratzlaff will spend his first few nights:
- Pleasant Acres Farm Campground, Sussex, NJ
- WT Family Camping Inc, Blakeslee, PA
- Whispering Pines Camping Estates, Stillwater, PA
- Happy Acres Resort, Waterville, PA
- Gaslight Campground, Emlenton, PA
- Chaparral Family Campground, Salem, OH
- Lake Wapusun Campground, Shreve, OH
- Hickory Grove Lake Campground, Marion, OH
- Kozy Campground, Celina, OH
- Tall Sycamore Campground, Logansport, IN
- Old Mill Run Park, Thornton, IN
- D & W Lake Camping and RV Park, Champaign, IL
- Lake Louis Campground, Bryon, IL
- Crazy Horse Campground, Ashland, IL
- Mark Twain Cave Complex, Hannibal, MO
- Lawrence KOA Campground, Lawrence, KS
- Spruce Lake RV Park, Estes Park, CO
- Winding River Resort Village, Grand Lake, CO
- RV World Campground, Rawlins, WY
- Madison Arm Resort, West Yellowstone, MT
- Virginia City Campground and RV Park, Virginia City, MT
- Jellystone Park, Missoula, MT