Unbound Gravel Crew for Innocence
A nonprofit fundraiser supporting
New England Innocence Project$10,790
raised by 41 people
$10,000 goal
We survived!
Friends,
What an adventure! At about 5:30 a.m., about a thousand cyclists from around the world gathered on Commercial Street in Emporia, Kansas to begin a big day.Â
At sunrise, we rolled off with the goal of riding 206 mostly gravel miles in the rugged and remote Flint Hills. Sunrise on the prairie was amazing.
 The first 68 miles were fast and furious as we rode in a large group to the highest point on the course and younger spirits drove the pace.
Then, for the next 87 miles, reality set in. We headed west and faced the dreaded Central Plains headwinds as the temperatures soared over 90 degrees. The group shattered. We suffered as we knew we would. We descended into creek beds, and climbed out again, we dodged rocks, we climbed over 10,000 feet and our bodies rebelled. Some hit walls that they had never known were there. Things got serious. But through it all, our group kept fighting, kept moving forward. We worked as a team. We dug deep.
When we reached the last checkpoint and the final 51 miles, our bodies were tired. There was a lot of despair in faces around us as a lot of folks gave up. One of our group should have given up. But none of us did. Because we had done our research, and trained a lot, we knew temperatures would come down and winds would die. We rolled on into the sunset, knowing that we would have to ride in the dark for many miles. But we were prepared. We kept fighting.
But before that, we got the beauty of a Plains sunset.
Then, working together, we dug in and found a new reserve. We got after it and started passing folks. A lot of folks. We turned on our lights and turned it up. After pressing through the dark for many miles, we saw Emporia and knew we were going to make it. A cyclist who had been following us for many miles pulled up and thanked us for guiding her home. We didn't even realize we had been helping.
As we rolled into Emporia about 10 p.m., the town had come out to cheer and welcome us back from an amazing adventure. Our whole team made it. The last one in shouldn't have made it. But he never gave up. And somehow he got it done.
Thank you all for helping us reach our goal of $10,000 for RFI. This money will bring a bit more justice to a world full of beauty and joy and suffering.
No one should go to prison -- or be in prison -- for a crime they did not commit. To the folks at the New England Innocence Project (NEIP), it is that simple. That is why NEIP works on policy changes and public education to prevent wrongful convictions, and that is why NEIP identifies and helps people all across the New England states who are actually innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted.
 Victor Rosario is one of the people who NEIP has helped throughout the years. Victor spent 32 years in prison for the crimes of arson and murder, crimes he did not commit. NEIP worked with Victor's attorneys to support his legal battles, and on September 13, 2017, he was finally exonerated!
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During his decades-long ordeal in prison, Victor became a marathon runner - a task that required him to run 76 laps inside the prison. In 2014, when he was first released, Victor and one of his lawyers, Lisa Kavanaugh, the director of the Massachusetts Public Defender's Innocence Program, formed the Running for Innocence team (RFI) to help raise money and awareness for NEIP and its work, and to help others still in prison to pay for the types of investigators and experts needed to achieve their freedom. In the years since its creation, the team has grown to include more than 50 runners who have participated in running events of various distances and worked together to raise money and awareness for this important cause.Â
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The Unbound Gravel Crew will be the first cycling team created to raise money for RFI. To us, cycling is synonymous with freedom. We love getting on our bikes, riding for hours, and exploring a new place. This freedom, which we often take for granted, is what the Innocence Project fights for every day.
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In the Fall of 2019, we chose the Unbound Gravel Race, a 200 mile single day ride on dirt roads through the Flint Hills around Emporia, Kansas. Inspired by Victor Rosario, we will ride to honor the fact that challenging a wrongful criminal conviction is often an endurance event that requires an ability to tolerate a lot of pain.
COVID-19 resulted in the cancellation of the 2020 race.
After the violent killing of George Floyd, as our country is re-examining longstanding issues of racism and social justice, we know that our justice system is unequal and that racism influences those who are wrongly accused and wrongly convicted.
So we are headed to Kansas on June 6th to ride 206 hilly, gravel miles.
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Contributions to innocence work address this one case at a time. Contributions fund investigators, experts, science, social workers, all of whom help build cases that reveal the fallibility of the criminal justice system. And when enough of these cases are put together, they build a tapestry that illustrates a truth that the general public would be less willing to believe if it were not presented by the stories of thousands of wrongful convictions of innocent people: the American criminal justice system is not fair, much less infallible, for poor people and people of color.
The team's goal is to raise $10,000 by June 3rd, 2021. All money raised in this campaign goes to NEIP which is working to overturn wrongful convictions and give people a fighting chance to achieve justice and freedom. None of the contributions support our ride.
 Please consider supporting this goal by making a donation today. And if you too love running, or cycling please consider joining the team by contacting Lisa Kavanaugh at rfi@newenglandinnocence.org
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