Professional photographer, veteran, and advocate for homeless Americans, Jerry Nelson embarks on March 19th for his second cross-country bike trek. This trip, which he’s calling Journey America 2.0, will take him from Asheville, North Carolina, to San Diego and back again, an over 5000 mile trip, by June 30th and he hopes the trip will serve to raise support for solutions to homelessness and the organizations putting those solutions in motion.
“Yeah, it’s ambitious,” says Jerry, “but the best things in life aren’t free. I leave one year to the day after having quadruple bypass surgery, and that’s something to celebrate. But more importantly, with Journey America 2.0, I hope to raise over $10,000 in donations for Asheville Homeless Network. So call it therapy. Call it a mission of mercy. Call it lunacy. Call it whatever you please.”
Jerry is soliciting donations for the Asheville Homeless Network (www.ashevillehomeless.org) and their Adopt-A-Homeless-Person Program which puts local organizations in a support relationship with an individual who needs a helping hand getting off the street and on track to meeting their goals.
“There are two aspects to this trip which I want people to pay attention to: veterans, the homeless, and homeless veterans. That may sound like three, but they’re not so separate as you might think. Twenty-three percent of America’s homeless population are veterans. Almost one in four guys you meet living on the street served our country in the military. I tell every veteran I meet, ‘Welcome home’ but that sounds kind of empty when they have no home to go to. That needs to change, and it needs to change now!”
Jerry’s first such bike trip included a four month vigil at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. That trip took him through 31 states from New Mexico to Maine in 36 months. The projected route for Journey America 2.0 is expected to take Jerry through Asheville, Atlanta, Mobile, Biloxi, San Antonio, Las Cruces, Tuscon and into San Diego.
“This is not a credit card tour where I glide smoothly from motel to motel. It’s ten hours a day in the saddle, sweating over 60 to 70 miles of pavement, camping out in the woods or on a new friend’s couch. It’s that simple, just like the reason behind it. Any questions?”
Learn more about Journey America 2.0 or make a donation to help the cause by visiting www.journeyamerica.org or send your donation to Asheville Homeless Network: Journey America 2.0 PO Box 205 Asheville, NC 28802. Learn more about the Asheville Homeless Network by visiting www.ashevillehomeless.org.
