After 14 states and 3,930 miles, Siloam Springs High School and John Brown University graduate Ed Weaver finished what started with dipping his bicycle tires in the Pacific Ocean: He dipped his tires on the Atlantic Ocean.
Weaver, SSHS class of 1978, is the 53-year-old CEO of T4Global of Dallas, a nonprofit organization that gives out MP3 players containing vital information in the native language of oral learners. The two-month trip was launched to publicize the plight of the more than 4 billion people who don't or won't read -- but need to learn.
Weaver's father, Gilbert (a retired Biblical studies professor from JBU who lives in Siloam Springs with his wife, Sally), loves to show photos from the starting moment and ending moment -- his son smiling on a bicycle parked in ocean surf.
"Crossing the 14 states, Ed and several other team members stopped at churches, parks and community centers along the way as they spread the message of the plight of oral learners," Gilbert said.
The trip took one day longer than expected because, in addition to the rest days built into his agenda, he took and extra day in Atlanta, Gilbert said.
The trip started June 1 in Pacific Beach, Wash., and end ended July 26 in Wilmington, N.C. In between those states he passed through Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas (for a stop at home), Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. He averaged riding 100 miles a day, with the longest day 130 miles.
"People asked him why he didn't ride east to west: Because he'd be facing headwinds the whole way," Gilbert said. During the trip he only faced a bad headwind (25 mph) one day, which more than doubled the time it took to cover that day's goal. And on only one day did he face heavy rain: That came in Colorado, where it was cold in addition to being wet, Gilbert said. Other than those two events, Ed had perfect weather for each day's ride, the proud dad said.
Ed has been riding a bicycle regularly for approximately 6 years. He lost 25 pounds as he trained for the coast-to-coast ride. During the journey he lost more weight, but he gained a lot of muscle mass, losing the belly visible in the Day 1 photo, and turning it into a trim, thin look in North Carolina.
T4Global partners with domestic and international churches and ministries to develop and distribute holistic audio content to accomplish Transformation that conveys Truth, offers context-sensitive Translation (not just linguistic), recognizes Trust is core to communication and utilizes appropriate Technology -- The 4 T's.
To find out more about TFGlobal, go to www.t4global.org.
General News on 07/30/2014