From Laurel to Laurel: Not your average road trip

Pastor bikes to Mississippi to raise money for Katrina victims

Friday, Aug. 4, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Barbara L. Salisbury⁄The Gazette The Rev. Dennis Whitmore, pastor of First United Methodist Church, rode his bicycle 1,071 miles to the town of Laurel, Miss., to raise money to help rebuild roofs for five Mississippi senior citizens. The trip took Whitmore 12 days and the church has not yet calculated exactly how much money was raised.

The First United Methodist Church pastor envisions an ongoing relationship between Laurel, Md., and its Mississippi counterpart.

‘‘We’re hoping what we’ve done this summer really lays the seeds for something bigger,” said Whitmore, 46, whose six-state ride coincided with a mission trip by almost two dozen local volunteers.

Whitmore said the two Laurels can continue to help each other — Laurel, Miss., offered the Maryland city assistance during the heavy rains at the end of June — as well as partnering to help other cities in need.

Pat Haag, the deputy city clerk, said Laurel, Miss., Mayor Melvin Mack called Mayor Craig Moe to check on the city and offered to provide ‘‘anything we needed.” But since Laurel, Md., was handling the situation well enough on its own, no assistance was necessary.

Based on the accounts of those who participated in the most recent effort, roots from Whitmore’s seeds are quickly taking hold.

‘‘We really were like celebrities down there,” volunteer Jean Dean of Bethany Community in West Laurel, Md., said, adding quickly, ‘‘which isn’t why we came. We came to serve.”

Dean and 22 volunteers from First United Methodist spent the week of July 14-22 in Laurel, Miss., counseling grade schoolers and repairing homes. Whitmore arrived on July 22.

Anne Marie Miller, First United Methodist’s director of youth, said some Laurel, Miss., children displayed anxiety during bad thunderstorms.

‘‘The children are very afraid that it could be another Katrina,” Miller said.

As Whitmore pedaled his way south, the other Laurel, Md., representatives traveled by car and train to help 39 children in kindergarten through eighth grade work through fears from Katrina, rebuild roofs on two houses and install showers for volunteers at West Laurel United Methodist Church.

‘‘Using the story of Noah and the Old Testament we were able to give them hope because Noah had to prepare for the storm and it wasn’t raining when the ark was built,” Miller said.

The five-day Camp Noah linked games, crafts, music, journal writing and other activities with the biblical story.

Miller said she was particularly touched by the transformation a 10-year-old girl whose family moved to Laurel, Miss., after being displaced from their home closer to the Gulf Coast.

‘‘We saw her go from being a person who didn’t talk to when it was over her not wanting us to leave and being one of the big talkers,” Miller said.

Laurel, Md., formally adopted Laurel, Miss., the month after Katrina struck on Aug 29, 2005. Since then, the city, residents and businesses have raised more than $16,000.

Whitmore said he looked up Laurel, Miss., on a map and recognized Route 11 from a bike trip he took through southwestern Virginia. The pastor, who worked as salesman, manager and personal trainer in Baltimore-area health clubs for eight years, works out four times a week and makes at least one long-distance bike trip each year. Whitmore has participated in a race in Maryland benefiting multiple sclerosis research for more than two decades, and in 2003 he biked nearly 1,000 miles from Maryland to the South Carolina border.

With the support of his congregation and the West Laurel United Methodist Church in Mississippi, Whitmore made plans to bike more than 1,000 miles to raise money and awareness for relief efforts in Laurel, Miss.

The project was First United Methodist’s first-ever out-of-state mission trip.

Whitmore decided on the theme, ‘‘Riding for Roofs” during an April visit (by plane) to Laurel, Miss., when Mack told him senior citizens without adequate insurance were struggling to come up with enough funds to repair their homes.

With more than $2,000 worth of pledges from local supporters, Whitmore departed Maryland on his Raleigh 450 RT, 21-speed road bike on July 10.

Averaging just under 90 miles a day, Whitmore usually set out before sunrise.

Whitmore, who each night linked up with support teams driving in cars, stayed with members of local churches or in motels. Along the way he crossed paths with a bear, several deer and plenty of bugs and collected an extra $442 for the five seniors adopted for the trip. Twenty of those dollars came from a gift shop in Virginia where a customer accidentally left his wallet behind. The customer, grateful for an employee’s honesty in returning the wallet, instructed her to leave its money in the cash drawer and to use it ‘‘for a good cause,” Whitmore said.

A police escort accompanied Whitmore on the final 60 miles of his journey. When the pastor arrived in Laurel, Miss., Mack and about a dozen young children joined the pastor on bikes of their own.

‘‘It just said something about what the town thought about our town,” Whitmore said of the reception he received, which included his being presented with the key to the city.

The total fundraising amount is still being totaled.

A pledge sheet left at Laurel, Md., City Hall must be tallied and funds budgeted for expenses during the trip that weren’t used added in.

E-mail Steve Earley at searley@gazette.net.