For the third consecutive year, Killingworth Ambulance Association president Dan O’Sullivan completed a five-day, 337-mile bicycle ride through New England to raise money and awareness for the Diocese of Norwich’s Outreach to Haiti program.
O’Sullivan is executive director of Outreach to Haiti, as well as an EMT and member of the Killingworth Lions Club and the parish and finance councils of St. Lawrence Church. What’s more, he’s one of only two persons to complete over 1,000 miles in the three years of the Outreach to Haiti’s cycling tour.
Farmington’s Tom Campbell, also a member of the Outreach to Haiti board, is the other.
The ride, which begins in Freeport, Me., crosses five of the six New England states (only Vermont is excluded) and approximates the distance from one end of Haiti to the other, is designed to raise money for the installation of solar power in the new Norwich Outreach Center in Haiti, with construction expected to begin in the fall.
The center has been in the planning stage for several years, with a capital campaign that exceeded its target in the fall of 2016. However, previously undiscovered earthquake damage was detected earlier this year, increasing the cost of the building and sending O’Sullivan and others back on the roads for a third tour of New England.
“It’s something that has been successful in terms of increasing awareness and attracting donors,” said O’Sullivan, “both for this ride and, then, for people becoming familiar with our efforts there. It’s a way of expanding the number of people connected to us. Every year I’ve met some more people through it who are extremely great to be with.”
Among the stops was the Cathedral of St. Patrick in Norwich, Ct., where O’Sullivan and a group of cyclists were met by children from St. Patrick’s Cathedral School and Bishop Michael Cote. Like Cote, O’Sullivan has made several trips to Haiti – seven, to be exact – with his latest in May, and he doesn’t anticipate ending those journeys or his annual 337-mile excursion through New England in the near future.
“I look forward to it,” he said of the cycling, “and I look forward to the end of it as well. In setting a goal, then persevering and completing it, there is a real sense of accomplishment.
“I remember when we finished the first year, Tom said, ‘We’re not going to do that again, are we?’ Then, last year, as we finished, he said, ‘We’re going to do that again next year … aren’t we?”
They did.