W&M Bikers return, community invited to finish last leg of journey

Homeward bound From left to right, Mark Walkley, Rawles Wilcox and Adam Reel stop in Richmond, Va., before heading home to Williamsburg to complete their 4,000-mile bike trip across the country. Photo courtesy of the Mason School of Business

Biking for a cause The W&M Bikers arrive at ChildSavers, a non-profit organization in Richmond, Va., helping children exposed to violence. The bikers are pictured here with ChildSavers CEO Mark Hierholzer. Photo courtesy of the Mason School of Business

by Megan Shearin | August 5, 2011

“Take Me Home Country Roads” – it’s the anthem song for the W&M Bikers who are returning from their 4,000-mile bike trip across the country this weekend.

And they’re inviting the community to join them Saturday, Aug. 6, as they ride the final leg of their three-month journey.

MBA students Adam Reel, Mark Walkley and Rawles Wilcox will bike the last trek – 13 miles to be exact – from Williamsburg to Yorktown’s waterfront. Anyone who wishes to join them should meet in front of Miller Hall, home to William & Mary’s Mason School of Business, at 10 a.m. The group will depart at 10:30 a.m.

“We have now traveled over 4,000 miles on our journey, raised over $7,500 for ChildSavers, and spent 58 days traveling the back-roads of this amazing country,” said the Bikers on their blog. “Our hands are calloused, our beards are full, and our tan lines are sharp.”

The trio embarked on their unconventional internship, part of the MBA Road Project, earlier this summer. Starting out in Astoria, Ore., they followed the TransAmerica Bike Trail and covered 10 states and 112 counties. Along the way, the bikers blogged regularly about their experiences – both good and bad – as they encountered groups of hungry unleashed dogs and swarming mosquitoes, battled unforgiving headwinds, repaired broken spokes and flat tires, and muscled through injury.

“Despite the soreness, riding by yourself supplies the opportunity to reflect on the miles you have traveled, the miles to come, and about life,” Reel wrote in a July 22 blog post. “The time to myself got me thinking about our cause, Childsavers.”

The bikers said one of the items they missed the most on their cross-country trek was ice cream, said Andrea Sardone, chief marketing officer for the Mason School of Business. To celebrate the biker’s successful journey, the Business School has arranged a gathering at noon on Saturday for the bikers and their community entourage. The first 150 people at the Yorktown Waterfront will receive “Buy One, Get One Free” coupons from Ben & Jerry’s.

For more information, contact Sardone at 757.221.2043.