FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – Today, Allen Giese, founder of Ride To Awareness, announced that 9 cyclists along with two support personnel will be departing from Ocean Beach on Monday at 7:30 a.m., September 14 to begin a 3,000 mile bike ride to Florida to support mental illness. The ride is supported by a large 32’ custom wrapped Motor Home which will be at the starting line.
Giese, whose son has been stricken with mental illness has spent a year building the charity, Ride To Awareness and planning this cross country ride. The charity has attracted 10 adventure cyclists from all over the country to ride along with him. The charity received a donation of a 32’ motor home and through donations paid to have it custom wrapped for the two-month event. The team of riders will be stopping in 8 major cities along the route, teaming up with National Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health America chapters creating awareness events for their respective communities.
Ride To Awareness is a group of 10 bicyclists crossing the country from San Diego to St. Augustine supported by a fully custom wrapped 34’ motor home promoting mental health awareness and helping the public learn where mental health services are available in their community.
“The resources that are available to the people through both the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and Mental Health America (MHA) are incredibly valuable to the people in these communities,” said Giese. “Just simply making people aware that these services, classes and programs exist is half the battle. Beyond that, we’re riding to help people understand that it’s the horrible stigma attached to having a mental illness that keeps so many from seeking the help and treatment they need to recover… because a lot of mental illness is recoverable. But unfortunately if a person is unwilling to seek treatment then they are only going to get worse.”
Helping others understand what mental illness is, destroying the myths behind it and eliminating the stigma attached to mental illness is the core to the efforts of Ride To Awareness. This year, Ride To Awareness is focusing its awareness efforts in the southern United States, holding events in 8 states and 10 cities as it treks across the country. The riders will cross steep mountain terrain, extremely hot deserts, back country roads and even interstate highways while averaging over 50 miles of bicycling per day.
“Mental illness is a very misunderstood disease,” said Giese. “Until my family was personally affected, I certainly didn’t understand it. That’s why this ride is so important. It’s not only to raise funds, which are desperately needed, but more importantly to raise awareness and remove the stigma associated with having a mental illness. Because it’s the stigma that keeps many from seeking treatment.”
According to www.NAMI.org , mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Here are some statistics:
- Mental illness affects one in four adults – that’s 61.5 million Americans- in any given year.
- One in 17 live with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, major depression or bipolar disorder.
- Approximately 20 percent of youth ages 13 to 18 experience severe mental disorders in a given year. For ages 8 to 15, the estimate is 13 percent.
- One half of all chronic mental illness begins by the age of 14; three-quarters by age 24. Despite effective treatment, there are long delays-sometimes decades-between the first appearance of symptoms and when people get help.
- Serious mental illness costs America $193.2 billion in lost earnings per year.
- Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. (more common than homicide) and the third leading cause of death for ages 15 to 24 years.
- More than 90 percent of those who die by suicide had one or more mental disorders.
- Although military members compromise less than one percent of the population, veterans represent 20 percent of suicides annually.
- Each day, about 22 veterans die from suicide.
To keep up-to-date on the progress of the ride; subscribe to the blog at www.RidetoAwareness.org.
