USU helps drive the Bike MS forward

Sophomore Anja Peterson says she has difficulty tying her shoes — not because she never learned how — but because she can’t feel her fingers.

The entire left side of her body is permanently numb — she’s unable to feel anything from a pin prick to the texture of her shoe laces.

At the age of 15, the biology major was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic, relentlessly progressive disease that damages the outside of nerves and causes severe pain and constant fatigue.

“But just because MS affects my life, it doesn’t mean it has to stop it,” Peterson said.

Peterson, along with other Utah State University students helped contribute to the 250 volunteer force for one of the largest MS research fundraisers in the nation — Harmons Best Dam Bike Ride. The event, which took place June 27-28 at the Cache County Fair Grounds, is one of the 100 Bike MS rides in the U.S. organized by the National MS Society.

Bikers choose among three routes on the first day, ranging from 45, 75 or 100 miles of relatively flat terrain or biking on the second day with two routes, 20 or 50 miles, up Blacksmith Fork Canyon.

“Cache valley has so many cycling events, but this one is distinctive,” said Annette Royle-Mitchell, the president of the Utah-Southern Idaho chapter of the National MS Society. “It’s not just ‘come and ride on the roads in Cache Valley,’ riders give back to community and we were completely booked this year.”

Bike MS began more than 30 years ago with a serious overestimation of biking ability. Will Munger, the then-executive director of the Minnesota MS Society chapter and his 10-year-old son began an optimistic 150 mile bike ride from Duluth, Minnesota to Minneapolis. Untrained, the two ended up spending the night in the town of Hinckley before finishing the ride the next day.

But this experience gave Munger an idea. If he and his son could bike 150 miles in two days, would others be willing to bike the same distance to raise money for MS?

In 1980, Munger organized the first ever Bike MS, known then as Bike MS Tour or MS 150. More than 200 cyclists participated in the race, raising more than $33,000 for the Minnesota Chapter of MS.

Hearing of the success of the Minnesota ride, other chapters formed Bike MS rides. In 1985, the MS Society adopted Bike MS as a national event.

By 2012, the event had over 200,000 participants and raised over $85 million for MS research.

At the Harmons Best Dam Bike Race this year, more than 2,000 cyclists participated and raised more than $1.5 million for MS research.

And Royle-Mitchell said it all would not have been possible without the help of volunteers like Ryan Jensen.

Jensen, a junior majoring in global communications and Spanish, volunteered to help with the event. For his whole life, Jensen’s mother battled MS.

“Looking back, I do notice there were small limitations,” Jensen said. “She was actually really into tennis growing up, and that’s what inspired me to try out for the team and I played all through high school. You would see parents come out and watch and she would have to stay in the car or sit far away. She couldn’t go to many away games because they were in the evening hours or when it was hottest.”

Jensen first learned of the National MS society during his senior year of high school in 2011. That same year, he volunteered to help with Walk MS, another MS fundraiser event, and then returned to help volunteer in 2012.

But that wasn’t the end of it. While at a MS society scholarship ceremony in Salt Lake two months ago, Jensen noticed there was a Bike MS ride scheduled in Logan and he said he was excited a fundraising event so close to his home and decided to volunteer.

But this time he wasn’t content to volunteer alone. Jensen recruited members from the A-Team a service-oriented organization at USU.

“It was really awesome to have the A-Team,” Royle-Mitchell said. “They helped with serving meals and we really were hooked on them. We’re hoping keep that affiliation going.”

Jensen said being involved in events like this let him know that there was support for his mother.

“I think they really help so much with families directly affected,” Jensen said. “Because it’s a down thing, but once you’re involved, you meet so many people and you find out how they cope with it and everyone involved is super positive. They just make things more bearable and exciting.”

For Peterson, Bike MS means hope for a future.

“It means being able to go on with our lives without MS affecting us too much,” Petersen said.

Though Petersen’s symptoms make balancing on a bike impossible, her parents, her brother and three family friends formed a team to race in her honor while she made sure they had all the support they needed as their team captain.

It’s this support from family and friends that Peterson considers one of the blessings of having MS — a disease Peterson said was “invisible” because the symptoms are not always obvious.

“I think a big a blessing of having MS is just having an understanding of not being able to judge other people’s situation, because you really don’t understand what they’re going through,” Peterson said.

As Petersen battles her unknowns with MS, she said she looks forward helping those with her illness after graduating for USU.

“No matter what life hands you, you need to stay positive,” Peterson said. “No matter what, you can get through it.”