Photos courtesy of Mike Glauser
“Pedaling to End Poverty” arrived in Radford July 16
Heather Bell
RADFORD – Utah State University Professor Mike Glauser biked into Radford July 16 and spent the night, resting a bit after biking more than 3,600 miles in 43 days.
It’s part of a cross-country journey he “hopes will be nothing short of the first step towards ending world poverty.” Glauser left Florence, Oregon, June 3, “dipping his tires in the Pacific Ocean.” Biking across the country following the TransAmerica Trail, Glauser reached Yorktown, Virginia on July 20. Accompanying the 70-year-old Glauser are his wife, four of his colleagues and a documentary film crew.
Glauser is a man on a mission, bicycling coast-to-coast with stops at dozens of small towns and hamlets in between. His effort, “Pedaling to End Poverty” has drawn attention all along his route.
“America is an incredible country,” said Glauser while in Radford. “Seeing it by bicycle feels like seeing it up close for the first time. The landscape is beautiful, and the people are amazing. Everyone we meet is interested in our story and they want to help.”
“Radford, the surrounding area, and all of Virginia are beautiful,” he continued. “We love riding through the canopies of trees and seeing the amazing farms, fields and scenery.”
Glauser’s message is “simple yet profound,” says information released by his team. “We have it in our grasp to dramatically improve the lives of poor people around the globe. Taking a grassroots approach, one small business at a time, with the model repeated thousands of times over. It’s the same philosophy guiding Professor Glauser’s ride across America. We truly are all in this together, one person reaching out to another.”
“It’s not a pipe dream. Not a fantasy sometime off in the future,” it continues. “As Executive Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University, Glauser’s students have now taught more than 10,000 people in Ghana, Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, Peru and more how to start and grow successful businesses, transforming their lives, the lives of their families, employees, and those in their communities.”
Glauser’s cross-country ride raised money for his nationally acclaimed program called SEED, for Small Enterprise Education and Development. Students from any university can apply for the one semester international program, learning invaluable experience in being an entrepreneur and teaching and mentoring others. For students who have done the program one of two things has happened. They either graduated and started their own businesses, or they were highly sought after by companies wanting employees with this kind of worldly experience.
“Entrepreneurship is the key to bringing families out of extreme poverty,” said Glauser while in Radford. “As we teach families to start small enterprises they can double and even triple their household income. This allows them to send their children to school, buy or build a new home, and break the cycle of poverty for generations.”
Glauser’s hope with his ride is to spread the word and raise money for scholarships, with 100% of all money raised going to students. Along the way, Glauser met with alumni from the program, filming interviews on how their lives have been affected and the people they have touched.
To learn learn about the cause and donate, go to www.pedalingtoendpoverty.org.
