COLORADO SPRINGS — Former Nuggets and Rockies voice, Jerry Schemmel has lived quite an incredible life. Jerry not only has spent much of his career as a sports broadcaster, he has also used his name to do good. Years ago, Jerry and a friend completed a 3,000-bike race, raising 100,000 dollars for an orphanage in Haiti. Now, he’s planning to use cycling to do better for the world.
Jerry Schemmel has always known his calling is to help others. Years ago, he survived a commercial plane crash, known as the United Airlines Flight 232, and he says biking and helping others has helped him get past to process his PTSD from this horrible crash.
“My personal belief is that God put me in this position as a broadcaster so that I could have this platform so I could do some cool things with it. Not necessarily name recognition but the position itself commands some sort of attention so I'm able to use that to do things that I enjoy that might benefit some other people,” said Schemmel.
This is why the former sports broadcaster is planning to start a challenging 250 mile a day cycling journey this summer, in an effort to raise money for the Kyle Pease Foundation, a foundation that raises money for people with disabilities that want to get into sports.
Jerry hopes to complete the race in less than 12 days. It will be challenging but he says it’s worth the struggle.
“Helping an athlete with disabilities is really, really special to me. I can’t imagine not having legs to ride my bicycle or a functional body to swim or whatever you want to do. I can't fathom that, I can’t put my mind around that so those people that are in that position that want to do athletics and sports, man I got to help them.”
Jerry will start his journey on June 15th and he hopes to finish in less than 12 days.
“I’ve done some of these types of events in the past, nothing this long and this grueling, and I feel like I can do 250 miles a day. It’s just going to take some crazy discipline. I’m going to have to follow the plan and be in the saddle for 15-20 every single day and not get a lot of sleep and be tired and be hungry and be sore but I think if I put my mind to it, I can persevere,” said Schemmel.
Jerry says this journey will his most challenging one to date.
“We have a crew of 15 people. Not all at one time. We are going to live in an RV and two follow vehicles, there’s a lot going on. There’s a lot of coordination. There are rules you have to follow,” said Schemmel.
Those who wish to donate to help Jerry and the Kyle Pease Foundation and do so by visiting here.
