The
Hattiesburg Wheels for Life Bike-A-Thon was held on Saturday,
March 27, 2005. Coordinators
for this year’s event were Chad Bolles, Stacey Ready and Bill Powe
III.
The event started at the entrance to
the Longleaf Trace at The University of Southern Mississippi on
West Fourth Street
. Participants rode as much of the 41-mile trail as they would like. “The
event lasts from about 8:30 until noon, but if someone wants to be bold
and ride all the way to Prentiss, we definitely encourage that, too,”
Ready said.
The increase in the overall survival rate of children with cancer from
30 percent to 70 has been made possible through research. The funds from
events such as the Hattiesburg Bike-A-Thon make that research possible.
The citizens of
Hattiesburg
work hand-in-hand with the researchers, technicians, and doctors at St.
Jude Children’s
Research
Hospital
to provide treatments and cures for children of catastrophic diseases.
Due to the overwhelming importance of the research conducted at the
hospital, St. Jude freely shares its new treatments and research
findings with doctors and hospitals around the world, including those in
Mississippi
.
St. Jude Children’s
Research Hospital
in
Memphis
, Tenn., was founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas. The hospital
is an internationally recognized biomedical research center dedicated to
finding cures for catastrophic diseases of childhood. The hospital’s
work is supported through funds raised by the American Lebanese Syrian
Associated Charities (ALSAC). ALSAC covers all costs not covered by
insurance for medical treatment rendered at St. Jude Children’s
Research
Hospital
. Families without insurance are never
asked to pay. For more information on St. Jude Children’s
Research
Hospital, please visit www.stjude.org.
For information on events like the bike-a-thon, please contact one of
the coordinators. Bolles may be reached at (601)736-1763, and Ready and
Powe may be reached at (601)266-5405.
Some
of the sights and participants of the Bike-a-Thon:
