Cycling for a cause: Tarr aide's cross country trip targets homelessness

It's a big country out there, and Brendan McGonigle is going to see most of it over the handlebars of his bicycle.

McGonigle is taking a leave of absence from his job as an aide to state Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, to bike across country to raise money for the National Center on Family Homelessness.

He'll ride solo, towing a cart with 50 to 60 pounds of gear. His route will take him south to Richmond, Va., then west to San Francisco, and then south again to Los Angeles. He estimates that he'll be traveling about 5,000 miles in all.

"Generally, people do this as a group thing, but I like the idea of being on my own," the 25-year-old Byfield resident said.

"I love traveling, and I love sports," he said. "This gives me a unique opportunity to combine both and help out some folks in need."

He plans to leave on May 18, kicking off his ride from St. Mark's School in Southborough, his high school alma mater. He expects the journey to take about eight weeks.

McGonigle is accepting donations for the National Center on Family Homelessness at his Web site, bike4ncfh.org, and held a fundraising concert earlier this week in Newburyport.

McGonigle said he has been getting a lot of help in preparation for his odyssey from Aaron Millet at Riverside Cycle in Newburyport and from Performance Outfitting in Salisbury.

He also said the Newburyport Police Department has made what he called a "generous" donation to his ride and Grog restaurant manager Joey Newman has been "awesome" in helping him organize his fundraiser.

McGonigle said he got the idea of raising money for a cause from a fellow Byfield resident, author Jonathan Kozol.

He said he read Kozol's "Amazing Grace," about the lives of inner city children, "and it totally changed my life."

"It changes the way you think about people," McGonigle said. "You kind of forget that most of the country doesn't live the way we do. The book really got the gears going. I think it really helped me grow."

He chose the Newton-based National Center on Family Homelessness as the beneficiary of his fundraising after looking at several charitable agencies.

"After talking to my friends in the nonprofit field, it was clear that this was a well-respected organization," he said. "I couldn't be more proud to be paired up with them."

"Families with young children now account for 40 percent of the nation's homeless population," McGonigle said on his Web site. "In the course of a year, more than 1.3 million children are homeless. Since 1988, the mission of The National Center on Family Homelessness has been to discover what works, to educate and inspire, and to take action to end family homelessness in America.

"The National Center works to give families a chance by arming communities with the tools they need to quell this plague. They understand homelessness from all angles — the causes, the people affected, the solutions. They then pass on what they've learned so that those providing services, creating programs, or shaping policy can do their jobs even better."

McGonigle plays ice hockey regularly and keeps fit, so he's not intimidated by the thought of pedaling a bicycle for 5,000 miles, but he knows he'll need to make sound decisions as the trip goes on.

"It's going to be more mentally challenging than physically challenging," he said.

"Ideally, I'd like to raise millions of dollars, but even if you raise $5, you're still helping," he said.

Photos

Brendan McGonigle of Byfield is taking a leave of absence from his job to bike across the country to raise money for the National Center on Family Homelessness. Courtesy photo