Pastor to cycle 100 miles for his church

Photo provided Concord Presbyterian Church Pastor Jim Braswell will ride his bicycle 100 miles around Sumter today to raise money to help pay off the church’s mortgage for the construction of its Fellowship Hall.

By GINA VASSELLI
Item Staff Writer
gvasselli@theitem.com

Would you bike 100 miles for charity?

Pastor Jim Braswell, 54, would.

Braswell is going to ride his bicycle on a 100-mile route around Sumter today to help Concord Presbyterian Church pay off some of its mortgage for constructing its Fellowship Hall in August 2007.

The church’s young adult Sunday school class, made up of people in their 20s and 30s, came up with the idea and has done the majority of the fundraising.

The goal was to raise $5,000, and as of Friday they had raised about $4,500.

“It is amazing, it really is,” said Jason Brown, the president of the Sunday school class, who has been keeping track of the money raised.

Brown said the group has only had about four or five weeks of fundraising so it averaged about $1,000 a week, with most of the donations around $100.

He said he is surprised people are so willing to give, “as tough as times are,” but he thinks the reason so many are willing to donate is because of Braswell’s dedication.

But Braswell said he’s competitive by nature and wanted a reason to meet his goal of biking 100 miles.

“It’ll be kind of fun to ride for a purpose,” Braswell said.

Braswell started biking in November after losing 40 pounds in about four months. He said his oldest son, Jesse, got him into bicycling.

He has been training hard to make sure he’ll be able to make the 100-mile circle, which will start and end at the church off Myrtle Beach Highway.

He said the class “has been promoting and eliciting pledges while I’ve been trying to train.”

Braswell said the group settled on 100 miles because “it seemed like a good round number.

“We wanted something that would be memorable,” he said, and “a big enough challenge to make it worth my while.”

Braswell’s son will accompany his father on the trip, which may give him a push to keep going.

The track will take them past Saint Charles, through Wedgefield, Pinewood and Manning and back around to the church.

Braswell hopes the trip, which will start at around 8 a.m., will take about eight hours.

He said he is a bit worried about the weather, mostly the wind. He said if it’s windy it can knock about 5 miles per hour off his speed.

“I’d rather it rain than wind on me,” he said.

But he said he will be taking periodic rests for water and food.

“I have not committed myself to riding 100 miles straight without a rest,” Braswell said with a chuckle.

All of the donations will go to the Fellowship Hall Building Fund.



Contact Staff Writer Gina Vasselli at gvasselli@theitem.com or (803) 774-1214.