Written by: Lauryn Kostopoulos, Blue Ride
If you had a dream, would you follow it? I once had the silly dream of biking across the country with a college friend. One day that dream turned into a reality. We found the Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure and ever since that day I have never looked back. This is now my third time crossing this amazing country by way of my bicycle, but that’s not what it is to me anymore. It’s much more than just a ride. To me it is more about this thrill of riding my back to a city or town with a local Fuller Center so that I can be an ambassador for them. It is now my turn to get my hands and clothes dirty to help someone in need of a safe and decent place to live. While we are not giving them people mansions, we are giving them a place that they call home and a place they look forward going home to every day.
To me that’s what the ride means more than anything. People will often ask who have you managed to bike across the country twice and be on my third one? I simply tell them “I just keep pedaling.” I pedal to that next destination and never look back, well occasionally to see some of the most beautiful scenery. I pedal so I can give someone a hand up and not a hand out. I pedal to help a veteran or a family or an elderly person in need of the hands of thirty workers. I pedal for the Fuller Center for Housing.
The Fuller Center for Housing has become an organization that I intend to spend he rest of my life working with. Being able to help people across the United States gives me a joy that I would never have expected. I am an avid volunteer in my community back home, but there’s something about helping a complete stranger and finishing the day knowing you have changed their life for the better. I know that there is no possible way for me to help everyone, but knowing I have helped just one person leaves me with such joy. I consider it a summer well spent and a life time of helping left ahead of me.
