Thirty five bicycle riders dressed in red, white and blue stopped for a short break in Richmond Hill Wednesday. The riders, participating in the Law Enforcement United Memorial Ride to Hope, were on the first day of a ride that will conclude at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. May 12.
Each cyclist was riding to honor an officer killed in the line of duty.
“We are riding to honor fallen officers throughout the country, especially for the officers who were killed in the line of duty last year,” said Bob Bates of the Henrico County, Va. Police Department. “We are remembering them, each one of them and that they had loved ones they left behind, we are riding in their honor, and to honor the families.”
One of the officers being honored was Bryan County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Robert Crapse who was killed in a head-on collision on Interstate 95 last June.
Crapse’s parents Becky and Steve hugged and shook hands with each of the riders when they stopped to refill their water bottles at the BCSO on Sgt. Kevin Larson Drive south of Richmond Hill.
One rider, Jose Medina of the Florida Highway Patrol, carried with him Woody and Buzz figurines from the movie “Toy Story” given to him to take on the ride by the daughter of David White, a Clay County Florida Sheriff’s Deputy who lost his life in Feb. of 2012 when he was shot while attempting to gain entry into a foreclosed north Florida home where a meth lab had been set up.
Medina said he would be returning the figurines to White’s daughter in Washington.
The riders who stopped in Richmond Hill will continue on to Chesapeake, Va. where they will join forces with 350 more riders from all across the country to continue on to Washington.
But not all the parties stopped for water were riding bicycles. Some were riding in support vehicles, including Haley, a 15-month-old English bulldog. While Haley’s owner, George Perkins from the Wilmington, N.C. Police Department peddled his bicycle, Haley relaxed in an RV.
The goal of the ride is to raise $250,000 for the Officer Down Memorial Page and Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS.)