June 27, 2011
ASE students Jeremy Benavides and Tommy Vinyard are Alaska bound in a bike ride to promote cancer awareness.
Jeremy Benavides, an aerospace senior, is taking the Rockies route: he'll camp in national parks and climb the intimidating elevations of the western mountain range.
Tommy Vinyard, an aerospace junior, is taking the Sierra route: he'll ride through the blazing heat of the desert and up the winding coast of California ever northward. But the routes each takes is less important than their shared destination: Anchorage, Alaska—and, hopefully, one step closer to curing cancer.
Benavides and Vinyard are two team members of the 45 UT students participating in the Texas 4000, an annual 70-day bicycle ride from Austin, Texas to Anchorage, Alaska following two years of raising at least $4,500 for cancer research. Both Benavides and Vinyard exceeded their fundraising minimums, racking up a combined $11,500 between them.
But equally important as the fundraising is the personal connection each person develops to the cause and to the people they meet along the way who are fighting the disease.
"I signed up because I wanted to do something that I knew would affect a lot of people and touch a lot of hearts," Benavides said. "But at the same time, it was also a personal thing—I wanted to prove to myself that I could accomplish such a feat, raising the $4500 and doing the 1500 miles of training."
Although Benavides has not lost any close family members to cancer, he has seen both his aunt and uncle, who raised him, struggle with health problems, so he hopes to inspire them to keep strong and healthy through this challenge. He especially hopes his experience means something to his new cousin, Savannah.
"Hopefully participating in something like this and explaining it to her will help her understand what it takes to pursue something so passionately," he said. "Every day when I'm out on that bike, my family is who I'm going to be thinking about to keep pushing."
Vinyard rides for his family as well: his mother and grandmother both had breast cancer. In fact, he was introduced to Texas 4000 through his sister, who rode in 2007.
"I was hooked from the get-go," he said. "It's such a great cause and such an interesting way of doing it. It touches my heart, and I know that what we're doing, riding to Alaska and raising money for cancer research, is so personal to each and every one of us."
Although seeing the western U.S. is a huge highlight of the ride as well, both Benavides and Vinyard are especially looking forward to the people they will meet along the way.
"I think that's going to be by far the best part of the ride, going to hospitals, churches, and people's houses along the way, meeting people who are battling cancer right now," Vinyard said. " Maybe we can do just that little bit extra to give them some help by connecting with them, so they are inspired by us and we are inspired by them."
Benavides said he's also excited about staying with the people who will host them along the way.
"I'm going to be looking forward to the stories because the people are just so passionate about why they host us in their church, their house, their schools," Benavides said. "Even though we're riding to fight cancer, I don't think we really understand that until we get out on the road and meet these people and their families, hear all these amazing stories, and really be humbled by these people fighting the tough battles every day. It makes you realize how precious life is."
Read more about the Texas 4000 for Cancer.
