‘A mission trip on bikes’: Fuller Center coast-to-coast ride makes stop in Albany
By Alan Mauldin
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ALBANY — The third time’s the charm for U.S. Navy veteran Jim Kruse’s dream to take a coast-to-coast bicycle ride and help people with housing needs along the way.
Kruse, who retired from a post-Navy job in 2018, the same year his wife Susan also retired, is one of more than 20 riders who will make all or part of the trip from Amelia Island, Fla., to Oregon. The ride, offered through the Americus-based Fuller Center for Housing, features stops along the way to work on housing projects.
On Thursday, Jim Kruse was working on a roofing project on Wexford Drive in Albany. Susan Kruse, who is working with the support team for the riders, was across town on a painting project at the Fuller Center’s Albany office on Fourth Avenue.
The riders range in age from the mid-20s to the late-60s.
In the summer of 2019 one of the Krises’ daughters got married, so last year was supposed to be the big year.
“We got ‘COVID-ed’ out,” Jim Kruse said of 2020.
Prior to this year, Jim Kruse took part in the shorter Natchez Trace ride in 2018.
“I fell in love with the work they do — we do,” he said. “We love doing the work. They’re good people, too.”
The 2020 version of the annual ride, which was first held in 2008, was in jeopardy until late February or early March before the decision was made to go forward. At that time, it was not known whether the bikers would be forced to sleep outside due to the COVID pandemic.
So far they have been pleasantly surprised that churches have been helping by giving the group a place to stay and meals along the way, said Ryan Iafigliola, Fuller’s vice president of international programs, who initiated the annual Fuller Center Bike Adventure.
“They’re opening their doors to us, they’re feeding us,” he said, with the requirement that all riders and support personnel be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.
Stops prior to Albany have included the First Methodist Church of Nashville, Ga. Other stops along the way include Protestant and Catholic facilities.
The cyclists will stay at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Albany.
“(It’s) pretty much across the Christian spectrum,” Iafigliola said. “We’re kind of a mission trip on bikes.”
After Albany, the group heads to Americus to work on several projects, then to the Columbus area and Lanett, Ala.
Rider Suzanne Stack of Yuma, Ariz., who was using a paint roller on the Fuller Center’s Albany office on Thursday, said she has been inspired by founder Millard Fuller’s story. After making a fortune with a partner before they finished law school, Fuller later gave away his fortune and embarked on a life of service.
The founder of Habitat for Humanity, he and wife Linda later founded the Fuller Center after stops in what was formerly Zaire in Africa, Stack said.
“He said what people really need is capital, not charity,” Stack said. “They came back to the U.S. and started Habitat For Humanity. They ended up branching off from there in about 2005.
“They changed the world.”
In order to participate, riders must raise a total of $4,750 and pay a registration fee of $200 for the coast-to-coast trip or smaller amounts to ride on portions of the tour.
One of Jim Kruse’s sponsors wrote a letter thanking him, he said.
“That’s the first time I’ve been thanked for asking someone for money,” he said. “(The sponsor) had never heard of the organization. That’s pretty cool.”
As a long-time homeowner, Kruse said he developed handyman talents, and he and Susan also had worked with a group in North Carolina that did housing rehabilitation work for the elderly during his time in the military.
During her time working on projects, Diane Bies of Evansville, Ind., said she has become a jack of all trades.
“I’ve done a roof,” said Bies, who has taken part in previous bicycling events and will ride 2 1/2 weeks in this year’s big ride. “I’ve put in windows. I built a wall, and I stood it up. I’ve done insulation.”
In one instance, the beneficiaries included a couple who were the first in either of their families to own their own home.
“I just think it’s amazing,” Bies said. “You keep people in their homes. When that’s your family home, it means a lot.”
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