Recently three ambitious men came through our town on their cross continental bicycling trek from Queens, NY to San Francisco, CA as they are raising awareness and money for their organization, the Single and Custodial Fathers Network.

The riders, Gene (38) and his two sons Stefan (18) and Joshua (15) began their four month ride on June 4th and have been going strong ever since. This week they are in my fair State of Wisconsin for the large Airshow in Oshkosh, WI and then will continue from there on their journey ending in California on October 1.

Why are they doing this you may ask. On their website which can be found at: http://www.rideforfatherhood.org/ they state that:

Our primary focus is to raise awareness of the role and importance of
fathers in our society….the long and short of it is that we want to promote better relationships between fathers and children.

When asked about what they are doing along their trip, Gene states that the three of them:

Along the way, we will be meeting with other people who feel as we do,
primarily fathers and supporters of father’s rights and responsibilities.
While I will not belittle the roles of mothers and step-mothers in raising
children, this is a campaign conducted by men and aimed primarily at men. We are talking to our own peer group, not ignoring women. I just don’t want any hate mail from NOW saying that we’re discriminating, we believe that both parents are equally valuable (that’s actually a major part of our mission statement), but we are a bunch of guys after all and we are much more apt to hang out with other guys. Moms are not unwelcome at our rallies, but you may have to put up with smelly armpits (and accompanying noises) and a certain feeling of having wondered into the men’s locker room. My suggestion for the women who support our cause is to send the kids with dad to go camping with
us and maybe a short bike ride the next morning on our way out of town…use the time for a luxurious bubble bath and accept our deepest and humblest thanks for everything that you do from bringing our children into this world to raising them together with us.

We will be publishing a schedule of Father and Kids Family Campouts as we progress across the country. At each of the events, dads and kids will be invited to come camp out with us, burn some hot dogs and toast some marshmallows with the kids and talk about whatever floats our collective boats as the kids run and play together and the
campfires slowly die into coals. Next morning, we’ll break camp, load up on our bikes, and everyone is welcome to ride the first few miles with us before turning back while we shift gears and start putting miles behind us.

It is our goal to organize at least one Father and Kids Family Campout in each state we pass through although plans may change depending on the response and support we get.

– See if these guys are coming by you…

Montauk, NY
NYC, NY
Staten Island, NY
Trenton, NJ
Cape May, NJ
Dover, DE
Washington, DC
Bike trail to Pittsburgh, PA
Youngstown, OH
Paw Paw. MI (relatives)
Ludington, MI
Manitowoc, WI
Oshkosh, WI
Pierre, SD
Rapid City, SD
Mt Rushmore, SD
Sturgis,SD
Crow Agency, MT (Little Bighorn)
Billings. MT
Red Lodge, MT
over Beartooth Pass to Yellowstone National Park
Jackson, WY
Idaho Falls, ID
Craters of the Moon National Monument, ID
Boise, ID
Burns, OR
Bend, OR
Crater Lake National Park, OR
Crescent City, CA
Cape Mendocino, CA
Ferndale, CA
Avenue of the Giants, CA
Mount Tamalpais (one last mountain), CA
San Francisco, CA and across the Golden Gate Bridge

I commend these guys for what they are promoting and encourage all of you to check out their site and follow their progress, and if you have a few dollars to share I can tell they could still use some support!