It was a frigid, windy afternoon in Drumheller, Alberta. Strong headwinds beat down on brothers Mike, AJ and Adam Teeter, and their bicycles. Between Vancouver to Halifax, it was the only time they stopped.

“It was a hard decision,” said Trinity Western University alum Mike Teeter, the eldest of the Teeter brothers. This summer the trio biked their way across Canada to raise awareness and funds for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Adam also graduated from TWU in 2006, and Mike now works at TWU as the coordinator of the LEAD office.

The brothers’ father passed away from the disease in 1994 at the age of 37.

ALS is a degenerative nerve disease, which leads to muscle weakening, paralysis and, eventually, death.

Mike came up with the idea after he and Adam went on a walk for ALS in the Lower Mainland. “I began to think about how my family’s story could encourage other people,” he said.

Fueled by the memory of their father, the brothers’ task was simple enough: bike the roughly 6,400 km from the Pacific to Atlantic Oceans in two months – roughly 125 km per day. They rested only one day per week, usually while stopped in a big city.

The goal was simple too: “We wanted to raise 52,000 dollars, because Mike’s dad would have been 52 this year, if he were alive,” explained Juliet Teeter, TWU Resident Director and Mike’s wife.

The three wives worked as a “road crew” for the trip. Following the brothers along the highway, the sisters-in-law set up campsites along the road, cooked meals, and took advantage of the DVD player in their sponsored KIA minivan.

Sponsorships were essential to completing the journey. “We didn’t have a lot of resources,” said Mike, “but it was good timing – no kids, no mortgages. We easily could have said we couldn’t do it.”

But with the help of sponsors such as Kelsey’s Restaurants, Norco performance bicycles, Gyptech – the engineering company where AJ works – and TWU, in addition to the support of family and friends, the crew was able to hit the road.

Altogether, the journey raised 37,000 dollars, about 15,000 dollars shy of their monetary goal. But, said Mike and Juliet, the most valuable thing they raised was awareness.

“Three to five thousand people are affected with ALS at any given time in Canada,” explained Mike.

But, Juliet added, most people along the road were unsure of what the disease is – many assumed ALS stood for “Alzheimer’s.” The cycling trip garnered both local interest and cross-country media attention for the disease.

The trip itself went fairly smoothly, reported Mike, despite a stolen bike and the aforementioned stormy day. “We had only eight flat tires altogether,” he said. Each brother also had one fall – all on the same day – but they kept going.

These minor setbacks were far from the most difficult part of the trip. “It was most difficult in the Prairies…when you see the same grain elevator in the distance, and begin to wonder why you’re biking at all,” said Mike.

But the importance of the trip was made clear 62 days after dipping their bike tires in the Pacific Ocean at Stanley Part to christen their journey.

The beach where the team ended their trip – Point Pleasant in Nova Scotia – happened to be reopening that day to the public after being closed for decades. There, the cyclists met a council member whose husband had championed the cleaning up of that waterfront for years, but had passed away from ALS before he could see that dream come true.

The brothers dipped their bike tires into the Atlantic Ocean, and then joined the beach reopening festivities by jumping in the water with their bike gear on.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Mike.