Starting out on Tuesday, May 23, Austin, Texas, businessman Bobby Jenkins and his two brothers, Raleigh and Dennis, hit the road for an approximate 4,000-mile bicycle journey across the U.S., on a personal mission. All three men are riding to fundraise for charities they feel strongly about, but for Jenkins, the ride is to honor the life of his late grandchild who passed away suddenly and mysteriously, three years ago.
Lifestyle
Brothers Jenkins Bicycle Across America on a Mission
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Photo: Facebook/Moss Pieratt Foundation
Preparing for months, 58-year-old Jenkins has put on his bicycling gear after leaving work and trained through miles of cycling on local roads. In an interview with KVUE, he explained, “Seventy miles in a day is one thing — 70 miles in two days,” he said. “Seventy miles every single day … that is where it does become a little bit of a grind.” This is the routine that the men will follow each day for the entire length of their fundraising trek. “I think people do think, ‘Man at your age, 3,500 miles is a long way.’ But I think they know where my heart is,” Jenkins explained. John “Moss” Pieratt Jr., Jenkins’ grandson, was a healthy and thriving baby boy, close to 15 months in age at the time of his death. He went down for a nap, and when his mother checked on him, she found him unresponsive and commenced with CPR immediately, while her mom called EMS. But after approximately 30 hours on life support at Dell Children’s Hospital in Austin, Moss had passed away.
Photo: Facebook/Moss Pieratt Foundation
Local doctors caring for the child reviewed the autopsy and could only say “unknown” for the cause of his death. “There wasn’t any — any cause that pointed to his death,” Jan, Moss’ grandmother, told KVUE. “And it’s the same story with every family that we’ve met. I think when you have a sudden unexplained death, I mean we just can’t accept that.” That’s when a group based in New York reached out to the Jenkins family regarding Sudden Unexplained Death of a Child (SUDC). You might already be familiar with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), but SUDC is something completely different, and can be diagnosed in kids from ages 1 to 17. As opposed to explained what has happened, SUDC is a classification regarding an unexplained death which researchers are in the process of trying to determine. And knowing that they’re doing so, gave the Jenkins family purpose. They started the Moss Pieratt Foundation to help raise funds and awareness for SUDC and have been going strong on the project ever since.
Photo: Facebook/ABC Home and Commercial Services DFW
And so, with his wife and daughter supporting him at home in Texas, and the memory of Moss driving him onward through each mile, Bobby Jenkins is presently riding from coast to coast across America, raising funds and awareness regarding SUDC and putting a name and a face to an issue that other families may be searching for answers to. “People know my heart and my passion for my grandchildren and for Moss,” Jenkins said. “Every peddle along the way, I’m gonna be thinking about Moss.” If you would like to follow their progress on this bicycle journey, you can visit their interactive map located here. Their trip commenced on Tuesday, May 23, in Seattle, WA, and they will be posting progress updates on their website, through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter until they make it all the way to New York City.
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