Cycling for Leader Dogs - WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and Sports

Cycling for Leader Dogs

Posted:
By Lindsey Rykal, Multimedia Journalist/Daybreak Line Producer - email

Chippewa Falls (WQOW)- A man on a bike tour for charity passes through the Chippewa Valley.

Mark Mansell is riding his bike from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine to increase awareness and raise funds for a program called Leader Dogs for the Blind.  The 35-hundred mile bike tour is a partnership between Lions Clubs nationwide and the Leader Dogs program, which provides guide dogs, free of charge, for the blind and visually impaired.

"Those funds have to come from somewhere and the bulk of them come from Lions. And so as a lion I took the project on and I wanted to do this and so I blended the two together and here I am, just about 2,000 miles into it and having a great time," said Mark Mansell.

Friday is his 24th day of the bike tour, he averages 90 miles a day. Mark said so far the biggest challenge has been the weather.

"I've had a significant amount of heat, humidity and wind. And there's a lot of things that are nice to say about North Dakota but the wind is not one of them," added Mansell.

Mark expects to arrive in Maine on August 5th. You can follow his blog or track his progress online at leaderdog.org.

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