UR Now: Always A Spider
Chain reaction
If there’s something we can do ..., we’re going to do it for them.
“Will your butt be ready to ride five or six hours a day for days in a row?” is not the kind of question that Tony Franco, B’89, an experienced cyclist, would ask just anyone. But he’s comfortable posing it to his fraternity brother and longtime friend Kevin McQueen, R’89 and GB’98.
In July, the pair, along with other Spider friends, are tackling a legendary bicycle ride across Iowa called RAGBRAI. Spiders joining them include Jim Popp, B’92, Win Gouldin, R’88, Pete Sheldon, R’89, and Chuck Frydenborg, R’86.
They’ll start at the Nebraska border and ride east until the Mississippi River town of Davenport, averaging more than 70 miles a day. Roughly 8,500 riders will complete the weeklong, 500-mile trip, with tens of thousands more riding individual segments along the way.
It’s a long haul, but being in something together for the long haul is nothing new for these Spider friends. The team, called #SEANSTRONG, is riding to raise money to support research into a condition called Fanconi anemia, or FA. Sean McQueen — son of Kevin and Lorraine Redpath McQueen, W’89 — has the extremely rare DNA repair disorder. Individuals with it often develop cancer.
When Sean was born in 1998, the average life expectancy of someone with FA was about 18. It is now 32, and in May, the family celebrated Sean’s graduation from college. Medical advancements have brought this progress over the last decades, and the McQueens and their friends have long been active raising funds to support these research efforts — everything from casino nights to concerts, and now, a bike ride across Iowa.
“We’ve known Sean since the day he was born,” Franco said. “If there’s something we can do from an emotional perspective, a financial perspective, or time and commitment, we’re going to do it for them and be there for them.”