Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Sunnyvale resident, Earl Taylor, has participated in the MS Bike Tours since 1997. Taylor has raised an impressive $41,456 to help find a cure.
Sunnyvale resident will pedal for MS bike tour
By Melissa Matchak
What started out as a one-time personal challenge has become a four-year effort to raise funds for the Silicon Valley Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Earl Taylor, a Sunnyvale resident, has raised $41,456 since 1997, for the Silicon Valley and Northern California chapters of the MS Society, $26,000 of that in the year 2000.
Taylor became interested in the annual MS Bike Tours in 1997, when he saw a brochure in a local bike shop and decided to challenge himself to the 100-mile ride. Taylor had started riding his bike from his home in Sunnyvale to work in Palo Alto, after surgery to remove a benign brain tumor in January 1996. After the surgery, he was advised not to drive for six months. Taylor says that, until he participated in the bike tour, he didn't know anyone with multiple sclerosis.
"I saw the brochure for the ride and I thought I would try it," Taylor says. "When I started talking to people and reading about MS, I realized that people with MS find themselves in a similar position I had been in. You wake up one day and your whole world is turned upside down."
Since his first ride in 1997, Taylor has participated in many MS bike tours each year. In 2000, he rode in Atlanta, Ga., along with the local rides in Watsonville and Redwood City. This year, he has gone to Phoenix, Ariz., and Australia for MS rides, and is signed up for the rides in Watsonville, Redwood City and Sonoma, which will take place June 23, July 28 and Sept. 29-30, respectively.
Taylor says although he was able to drive again six months after his surgery, because he had become accustomed to riding his bike to work, he continued to do so every day, rain or shine. He says part of the reason he continues to participate in the MS rides is the sponsors, who always ask him when and where his next ride will be.
Although MS has never affected Taylor, he says, since he started participating in the rides, he has heard the stories of many friends and co-workers whose family members have died from complications with MS.
"Prior to this, I didn't know anyone with MS, and now I've come to meet a lot of people affected by it," Taylor said. "Many of the sponsors supporting me have friends or family members with MS."
Taylor's next ride on June 23, will cover 100 miles and pass local landmarks including Seacliff Beach, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Elkhorn Slough Reserve and Gizdich Ranch.
The annual Rainmaker System's MS Back to the Beach Bike Tour is the Silicon Valley Chapter's 14th event, and has two purposes: to raise funds for research and programs for people with MS; and to educate people about the new drug therapies. Those interested in contributing to Taylor's fundraising effort can contact him at 408.245.8969 or at etaylor@hotvoice.com. For more information about the MS Society's bike tours, call 408.988.7557, or go to www.nationalmssociety.com.
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
