Bicycling Tosa pastor spreads word with pedal power

Gary Manning isn't crazy.

Well, probably not entirely anyway.

But plenty of people thought he was crazy when he first came up with the idea for the Tour de DioMil, an 11-day bicycle tour of the churches in the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee that starts Aug. 31.

The skepticism didn't stop Manning, the pastor at Trinity Episcopal Church in Wauwatosa.

"Along the way, the more people who told me I was crazy, the more I thought, 'Well, maybe I am, but this seems like a fun thing to do,' " he said.

A fun thing to do? The Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee stretches from Port Washington to Prairie du Chien, encompassing the southern third of Wisconsin. The route includes nine days of riding, with 33 miles on the shortest ride and nearly 80 miles on the longest. Oh, and western Wisconsin has hills - lots of them.

But Manning has full faith that he can finish.

"My intent is that every mile I will cover will be covered on the back of that bicycle," he said. "We will see."

Charitable aim

Manning got back into biking about a year ago after realizing he needed to do something to get in shape. It worked - he lost about 20 pounds - and more importantly, it gave him an idea for a service project to complete during his sabbatical, which started Friday.

During a ride on the Glacial Drumlin Trail, an idea struck. What about visiting the parish churches in towns like Richland Center and Monroe, churches that have long been part of the community but aren't in big cities like Milwaukee?

"What would it be like to just stop in and hear about what they're doing?" Manning wonders.

The ride also is about helping others. He hopes to raise $50,000 combined for three charities: the Haiti Foundation, an international outreach program of the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee; Episcopal Relief and Development, which will go toward clean-water projects worldwide; and World Bicycle Relief, which provides bicycles to health care workers in poor countries.

Manning said he hopes donors don't balk at the total amount and give as much as they can, even if it's $10 or $25.

"Don't let the number prevent you from giving," he said. "The more people we can get to participate, the more people we can help through this process."

Forging connections

Manning will be getting some help on the route. Elizabeth van der Weide, coordinator of the Haiti Project, and Trinity Episcopal parishioner Betsy Jeffrey will be riding with Manning for the entire Tour de DioMil, and several other riders will join for a leg or two.

Jeffrey, who has done organized bike tours in New Zealand, Portugal and Denmark, said she's looking forward to seeing some of the diocese's smaller parishes.

"I like the premise behind the Tour de DioMil because we have a lot of parishes that don't get much attention," she said.

Van der Weide also does a lot of riding. She's done the Horribly Hilly Hundreds, a 100- or 200-kilometer ride through Iowa and Dane counties, and she said it's typical for her and her husband to go 50 or 60 miles on a given ride.

"It's a good opportunity to get to ride my bike for a week and a half with a good excuse," van der Weide said.

The riders will visit Trinity Episcopal Church in Baraboo, and the Rev. Scott Seefeldt, the pastor and an avid biker, will be joining Manning and his crew for a couple legs of the tour.

He supports Manning's idea of making other members of the diocese aware of what's going on in the churches outside Milwaukee and Madison. He also said he loves the sense of connection he gets while he's riding with others.

"Cyclists - the ones I know, the ones I ride with - are just positive, wonderful people," Seefeldt said. "At the end of the day, the human experience, just like the church experience, it's all about relationships. And the bike is a great way to get to know people."

LEND A HAND

There are two ways to donate to the charities represented in the Tour de DioMil:

Visit tourdediomil.weebly.com and click on "Donate."

Send a check (all contributions are tax deductible) with "Circle Tour" in the memo line to Trinity Episcopal Church, 1717 Church St., Wauwatosa, WI 53213.