SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A father of two from Florida is embarking on an epic journey beginning in San Diego in early March this year: biking from coast to coast, ending just miles from his home.
Patrick McGarry says he started biking during COVID, when he was trying to get more active. It slowly became a form of therapy before it became his life - as he trains to complete this new feat beginning in San Diego, California, and ending on the East Coast of Florida.
The ride is to raise money for the Tunnel to Towers foundation, an organization that honors and supports first responders and their families post 9/11. Beyond that, McGarry says it's a way of working through grief, still fresh, 25 years after he lost his little sister to the September 11th attacks.
"She got to the top of the building for [a] conference about five minutes before the first plane hit," McGarry said.
His little sister Katie was just starting her life, he says; she had just gotten married and was two weeks into a new job that had sent her to New York City for the conference where she passed.
"This bike ride is really just to put pain into purpose," McGarry said. "To try to get something good out of it, which my sister would have loved."
McGarry says he used to work in New York City before the attacks and had quit that job six years prior, which made it all the more unbelievable that his sibling would die six years later in the same city. That's why he's raising money for the Tunnel to Towers foundation now - as a way of giving back to the first responders who lost their lives on that day, as well.
"I feel [Katie.] I know she's with me on this," McGarry said.
After a few different media appearances and getting noticed on Reddit, McGarry has raised just over $70,000 for the organization.
"If you love somebody, they're never gone," McGarry said.
To support his cause, click here.
