Riding a bike 900 miles from New York to Georgia didn’t seem like too much for Kaete Nazaroff to ask of her husband to help a child with medical needs.
Twice Dave Nazaroff has made the trip to raise money for Georgia children with overwhelming medical needs, all because his wife could not forget the little boy from Jefferson that prompted her to start a charity called Ride to Give.
And she expects her husband, an Ironman triathlete who owns three bike shops in New York, to make that same solo ride again next year as well as the July after that and the July after that.
“I helped the only way I thought I could and that was to send my husband down there on his bicycle,” Nazaroff said about the first trip last year to raise money for Tripp Halstead, a toddler in Jefferson who suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2012 when a large tree limb crashed onto his head while he was on the playground at his daycare.
They raised nearly $200,000 using social media to help the Halstead family with their son’s medical bills.
Ten days ago, Dave Nazaroff rode his bike from Nyack, N.Y., a second time. This time he biked to Gainesville in North Georgia to deliver of $87,000 that his wife's year-old organization had raised using Facebook.com to raise money on behalf of Callie Truelove, an 11-year-old with Williams Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes cardiovascular disease, developmental delays, and learning disabilities. The money will be used to redo her bedroom and for construction of a "therapy" playroom by the organization Sunshine on a Ranney Day.
“It didn’t only change Callie’s life, it changed our whole family’s life,” said Tabatha Truelove, Callie’s mother.
With the money raised through this year’s trip, Callie’s bedroom was redecorated with a butterfly theme and covered the cost of building a therapy room with a feel of a safari — zebra stripes painted on the walls, sculptures, stuffed animals and a live bird in a cage — over the Trueloves’ garage. It’s a place for her to do her physical, speech and occupational therapy and a safe place where the girl can play without her mother fearing she will wander off.
Nazaroff said a “Ride to Give army” goes on shorter rides throughout the year to raise money for other children in other states but one big one they plan for each July will be to Georgia to benefit a Georgia child because that’s how the group started. Next year’s benefactor, like in Callie’s case, will be selected by Sunshine on a Ranney Day organization, which makes home renovations to benefit children with long-term illnesses.
On July 12, the Trueloves were waiting for Dave Nazaroff outside a boutique for children in Cumming where Callie had come to have her hair and nails done for the “big reveal.”
When he topped a hill at around 2 p.m., that was the first time the Trueloves met him.
“I remember just feeling overwhelmed and all kinds of emotions,” the mother told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Wednesday. “I remember looking at Callie’s face and seeing the look of excitement and her arms outstretched until he could get to her.
“She was hollering and she was laughing and crying all at the same time,” Truelove said. “They … immediately hugged each other and cried. She felt like a princess.”
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