Midwest Route of the National EMS Memorial Bike Ride

On Friday, June 28 at approximately 8:00 a.m. Senior leadership and staff of Fort Memorial Hospital will host the Midwest Route of the National EMS Memorial Bike Ride (NEMSMBR) cyclists and support personnel. A solemn ceremony will be held at the hospital to remember the 75 EMS and air medical honorees they are riding for prior to their departure on Day five of the Ride. Local EMS/fire and law enforcement personnel, hospital staff, the Flight For Life aircraft and crew, as well as family and friends of some of the EMS and air medical professionals who are being honored on the ride will gather in the parking lot(weather permitting) just outside the Emergency Department Entrance. Should there be inclement weather the ceremony will take place in the atrium area inside the main entrance of the hospital. The public is welcome to attend.

Upon completion of the ceremony the riders will be led by law enforcement and fire/EMS vehicles as they leave the hospital, traveling down Main Street to Whitewater Ave as they head towards Racine, their stop for the night. The Flight For Life helicopter will depart the hospital helipad, flying over the procession as they leave. The public is encouraged to line the streets to cheer the riders on as they leave town.

The NEMSMBR honorees are those EMS and air medical personnel who have lost their lives in the line of duty in 2018 well as EMS legacy personnel who have died of natural or non-employment-related causes. The riders began their journey in St. Paul, MN on Monday and by the time they reach Chicago on Saturday, they will have ridden nearly 500 miles in a variety of weather conditions in honor of their fallen colleagues.

Each of the 37 cyclists and support personnel carry dog tags around their necks inscribed with the names of 75 individuals they have been riding in memory of since Monday. The riders present their dog tags to awaiting families, friends or colleagues at stops along the route as well as when they arrive in Chicago. When the Ride ends, a short ceremony will follow at Fireman’s Memorial Park on the lake shore in Chicago.

The Ride is tough no matter how experienced and accomplished of a rider you are, and weather can make it more difficult. Brian Shaw, president of the National EMS Memorial Bike Ride, when asked shared his insight into why they ride. “Participants in the National EMS Memorial Bike Rides honor the lives of EMS providers who were perhaps their friends, family or co-workers by pedaling their bicycles over many miles of challenging terrain. A challenge that no matter how hard or grueling is a reminder that we are here and able to complete this task and shall never forget those that have left us all too soon.”

DETAILS: Check out the routes by day for the ride at the following site:

http://www.muddyangels.org/rides/%20midwest

National EMS Memorial Bike Ride:

For more information, visit www.muddyangels.org. “Like” us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/muddyangels; Follow us on Twitter at @nemsmbr and on Instagram at @nemsmbr.