'Brotherhood Ride 2008' honors firefighters killed in S.C. blaze

Each crank of the bicycle pedal builds muscle.

Each mile of training on Collier County roads increases stamina.

Each bruise, each scab, each bead of sweat adds just a bit more grit to their already tired but determined bodies.

For a group of local firefighters, and one Collier County sheriff’s deputy, they will need it all and then some if they are to accomplish their summer goal -- finishing a nine-day, 600-mile bicycle trek from North Naples to Charleston, S.C., to honor nine Charleston firefighters who were killed last June battling a warehouse blaze.

They also hope to deliver a sizeable sum of donations to the families of the nine firefighters who died in the inferno -- the deadliest single disaster for firefighters since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

“There are nine families that need help for the rest of their life,” said North Naples firefighter Jeff Morse, who is heading up the ride. “They lost their bread-winner.”

The journey, dubbed the “Brotherhood Ride 2008,” is scheduled to kick off on the morning of May 24 and end on June 1, in Charleston.

Along the way, the firefighters will be making stops in: Arcadia; Winter Haven; Eustis (near Orlando); Palatka; Jacksonville; Brunswick, Ga.; Savannah, Ga.; and Walterboro, S.C.

The group hopes to pick up riders along the way.

North Naples firefighters first started kicking around the idea for the “Brotherhood Ride” last summer, in the weeks after the June 18 blaze, Morse said.

Firefighters worldwide consider other firefighters their brothers, and were devastated by the deaths.

“I don’t care if you’re in Canada, Mexico, wherever you are, you feel the loss,” Morse said.

Being 600 miles away, the local firefighters questioned what they could do to help. When the idea of a bicycle ride came up, Morse, 44, said he talked to some of the more experienced riders in the department to determine if it was doable.

Ultimately, they determined it was.

“Multi-day events are always very tough, especially nine-day events,” said North Naples firefighter Dave Jones, 51, a veteran of numerous rides and more than 100 marathons.

So far, there are 12 riders signed up, including firefighters from North Naples, East Naples and Big Corkscrew. The ride is open to all firefighters, law enforcement officers and emergency services personnel, Morse said.

Sgt. Dan McDonald, 41, of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office signed up for the ride after learning about it at Clint’s Bicycle Shoppe of Naples, 8789 U.S. 41 N., which is a sponsor.

“I would like to hope I could get myself into a position where I could ride a significant portion of it,” McDonald said. “Training around here is a lot of flat terrain. ... I don’t know how I’ll do riding on hills. My goal is to ride every mile.”

The riders won’t be on the road alone on their trip.

A retired fire chief has volunteered to follow the riders in his motor home, and help transport riders who get tired or injured, Morse said. The group also is trying to schedule police escorts through portions of the trip.

Clint Kronenberger, 36, owner of the bicycle shop, is helping the riders with training and nutrition over the next three months, and is taking about two weeks off to follow them to South Carolina.

“I’m going to be driving behind them doing all the flats and support,” Kronenberger said.

Organizers are working with another sponsor, the Elk’s Lodge of Bonita Springs, to secure access for the riders to other lodges along the way where they can sleep and eat, Morse said.

One recent morning, five North Naples fire riders gathered at the bicycle shop before heading out for a three-and-a-half mile training run down Pelican Bay Boulevard.

A novice cyclist, Morse said that when he first planned the ride his bike was a “Kmart special.”

He since has upgraded.

“He got it in his head and nothing would stop the guy,” North Naples firefighter Luciano DeAndrade, 30, said of Morse. “He’s inspired me so much that I just want to be there to see it.”

The participants are trying to spread the word about the ride to help bring in donations. Though Morse doesn’t have a specific fund-raising goal, the riders already have raised about $4,000, they said.

In an effort to attract some attention to the ride, Morse, McDonald, and firefighters Rob Boisselle and Zach Mason recently ran the Naples Daily News Half Marathon while wearing 40 pounds of bunker gear.

“We don’t know how to do fund-raising. We don’t know how to do marketing,” Morse said. “We’re a bunch of hose draggers.”

Alysia Olshinski, 36, an event coordinator for the City of Charleston, said her community is doing as well as could be expected.

Olshinski, who volunteered last year on a hot line coordinating the funeral for the nine firefighters, said it’s hard to quantify the gratitude her community has for everybody who helped in the aftermath of the fire.

She said she was surprised to learn that firefighters from Naples were actually planning on biking up to South Carolina.

“I was amazed when (Morse) explained that it was actually bicycles and not motorcycles,” Olshinski said. “It’s really nice that people are thinking about us, you know?”