LEADVILLE — The Border to Border Ride continues as our Ira Cronin is cycling his way across the state with the Shield 616 folks working to raise money for their organization. On Day 2 of the ride they stopped in Leadville to donate body armor to the police department.
The Shield 616 team is in the process of riding from the Wyoming border to New Mexico border. Jake Skifstad is the founder of SHIELD616, a Colorado Springs based non-profit whose mission is to provide first responders with the best in protective ballistics gear - free of charge. This bicycle ride is just one of many fundraising events throughout the year.
Jake says, “I think it's unlike any other bicycle ride that's out there. You have a true purpose of potentially life-saving behind riding across the whole state. It's not an easy task especially considering the route we take in the mountains.”
The genesis of SHIELD616 began during Jake’s time with the Colorado Springs Police Department. “One of my worst days was being involved in the Planned Parenthood active shooting, and I said our protectors need the best available equipment that is out there,” he explains.
The SHIELD616 border-to-border ride is now in its fourth year. The original idea for the fundraiser started with Cary Katalin, a former chaplain with Colorado Springs Police. Jake recalls, “He (Cary) said, 'I have an idea for a fundraiser.’ and I said, ‘Great! what are your thoughts?’ And he said, ‘I would like to ride across the state of Colorado; a border-to-border bicycle ride.’ I said, ‘People would want to do that?’ and he said, ‘Yes, I think they would.’ "On our first year (in 2016) we had seven riders.”
To support me in this effort to ride across Colorado with Team SHIELD616, CLICK HERE
Jake says, “It means so much that this is a community effort. I would encourage everyone that there is no small donation, if you can one donate one dollar, five dollars, ten dollars, we tell people all the time that at the end of the day it all adds up to something life-saving.”
To learn more about SHIELD616 and their mission, you can visit their website HERE
