Ride4Gabe 2016

We are cycling to end Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.  We are raising money to support expenses and the proceeds will go towards established efforts to end Duchenne.  In 2014 we earned news coverage estimated at five times our costs!  #Ride4Gabe and #HopeforGabe are making a difference.  Please help by contributing any amount.  It IS tax-deductible and you can help us #makeduchennehistory!





Michael Staley, Wes Bates, and Payne Griffin will start pedaling on July 29, 2016 from Maine to Mobile and they hope to finish the 2,200 mile journey in just 11 days!  

In addition to three cyclists we will have a crew of 10-11 people.  The crew includes a still photographer, a videographer, a nurse practitioner/media coordinator and drivers for a motorhome and 2 full size SUV's.  Several other people will serve as backup drivers and make sure things run smoothly. Gabe hopes to be with us the whole time too.  Even with substantial volunteer support, things are still expensive. 

Above: The Montgomery (AlabaCounty Commission declaring Ride4Gabe Day in 2014. 

Above:  Suburban Donated By Donohoo follows Ride4Gabe riders in 2014, keeping them safe on road. 

We hope to raise $10,000 on GoFundMe to help support the expenses of Ride4Gabe 2016.   This will not cover all of our expenses but it will be a tremendous help.  

We will sleep in the motorhome or in tents next to the motorhome.  This is not luxury.  Major expenses include gasoline, food, custom cyclist apparel, campground fees, marketing costs, and costs associated with producing a documentary.  The motorhome and follow SUV will be professionally covered with our message and serve as moving billboards for our cause.  

Above:  Meridian Idaho declared July 3, 2014 as Ride4Gabe Day and the firefighters fed the team dinner.

Please help by making a tax-deductible contribution to the 501(C)(3) Hope for Gabe Foundation through GoFundMe.   

After we pay expenses we will contribute proceeds of Ride4Gabe to established efforts to end Duchenne.  

Fighting to End Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
www.hopeforgabe.org                            www.ride4gabe.com 

News for Immediate Release:                                                         Monday, May 23 2016

Contact:  Michael Staley                       
(205) [phone redacted]

Hope for Gabe Foundation announces Ride4Gabe 2016

Gabe Griffin is cute, red-headed, and freckle faced.  He was selected as ‘most inquisitive’ last week by an overwhelming majority of his 5th grade classmates.  Gabe and his friends don’t fully understand that Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is progressively killing Gabe’s muscles. Three men, inspired by Gabe, announced today they will pedal their bicycles across America raising awareness and money to support efforts to cure the genetic condition that approximately 20,000 children are born with each year.

Above: Gabe poses with his close friend and fifth grade classmate, Walker Gailey, at Mt. Laurel Elementary School on Friday, May 20, 2016.

The Shelby County eleven-year-old is the namesake of a tax-exempt non-profit—the Hope for Gabe Foundation—that works nationally to raise Duchenne awareness and research funding.  “H4G” logos are commonplace in Gabe’s school and all over Chelsea. The Alabama Legislature was also inspired by Gabe in 2015 and named a medical access law after him.  In Washington, D.C., Chairman Fred Upton of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce calls Gabe a ‘familiar face.’ 

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a genetic condition caused by missing or faulty information processors in a human gene responsible for the production of a vital protein called dystrophin.   Duchenne leads to muscle wasting, a complete loss of mobility and premature death. 

Gabe’s father, Scott Griffin, holds out hope for a treatment but also understands the reality of the situation.

“To date nobody has survived Duchenne.  We lose children as young as 9 or 10 due to heart and lung failure.  It is uncommon for a fourteen-year-old Duchenne patient to still walk and very rare for them to live past 25.  Thankfully, many researchers believe we can turn around the muscle wasting caused by Duchenne within a decade.”

Ride4Gabe

After getting to know the Griffin family while serving as chief of staff to former U.S. Representative Spencer Bachus, Michael Staley suggested taking the message across the country and volunteered to organize a bicycle ride. From late June to early August 2014, Staley and Wes Bates of Aurora, Colorado pedaled 3400 miles from Oregon to Alabama. The effort was very successful, raising awareness with multiple television appearances each day along with broad coverage online and in newspapers. The duo raised about $100,000 while crossing 11 states over a period of 42 days.  A June 2015 cycling crash shattered Staley’s femur, postponing any hopes of a second Ride4Gabe until this year.

Staley, 35 and Bates, 21, will be riding for their cause again this summer from July 29 until August 8. They will pedal 200 miles per day from Houlton, Maine to Mobile, Alabama with newcomer Payne Griffin, 23, of Washington, D.C.

Pictured Above: The Ride4Gabe 2014 caravan stopped in Wyoming. 

Cyclists will be welcomed to join the Ride4Gabe riders as long as they can maintain a 15mph overall pace. There is no registration fee.  Events are being planned to bring the Duchenne community, the Ride4Gabe team and supporters, donors and the news media together at various points along the route.  

Tax-deductible donations of any size are very helpful.  Interested parties in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama are encouraged to contact Hope for Gabe to offer support by completing the form on www.ride4gabe.com or calling [phone redacted]. 

Staley said, “At 15-17mph we will be riding the same distance as the Tour de France in half the number of days. We are saving Alabama for the last two days—August 7th and August 8th.  We hope there will be a ton of Alabama cyclists and citizens who want to be involved in supporting our cause and encouraging us along the way.”  

Scott Griffin says there is a lot of work left but that things are coming together nicely.  The traveling support team includes a camera crew, medical support, a bicycle mechanic, a press aide and drivers for several vehicles. 

“We are thrilled that Donohoo Chevrolet has again pledged a large SUV that we will cover like a billboard to get our message out on the road and use to support the cyclists.  We will also have a motorhome and estimate that our expenses will come in right about $50,000.  Hopefully people reading this will be inspired to give.”