Biking to help a friend

Posted Thursday, July 3, 2008

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LAPEER — Bill Ogden’s long-term goal is to raise $2 million for Multiple Sclerosis research. For this year’s ride, set for July 12 and 13, Bill has established what he considers a realistic fundraising goal of $10,000. With less than two weeks until the MS two-day bike race, he’s approaching the halfway point toward his goal.

“I’ve calculated that I will have to raise about $50,000 each year for the next 40 years,” Bill said about his long-term goal. “I’m banking on exponential growth and long life expectancy to achieve this goal.”

“Fundraising is still somewhat new to me, and I realize I need to take small steps in addressing my larger goals, so I don’t get discouraged,” he said.

And Ogden’s small steps are a good start to something even bigger; something that is more fundamental for both humanity and for individuals living with MS.

The 34-year-old attorney wants to help fight and find a cure for multiple sclerosis in support of his friend, Tanya Roycraft, who was diagnosed with MS in 2001.

Along with his wife Melissa, Bill participated in his first MS 150 last year and rode nearly 160 miles roundtrip from Linden to East Lansing as part of Tanya’s team, Circle of Friends.

For that event Bill managed to gather $6,365, placing him seventh out of more than 1,500 participants for most money raised.

“When setting this year’s fundraising goal I began to think, ‘If this is what I can raise in two weeks, imagine what I could do if I put more time into it.’ At first I considered a goal of $1 million, but that almost sounded too cliché. So, I decided I would try and raise $2 million over my lifetime,” Bill said.
Roycraft was humble when told about Bill’s $2 million goal. “That’s so Billy,” she said. “He’s very much like me in that he does nothing in a small way; like we both have wide eyes looking out at the world and all its possibilities. That’s probably why we became such good friends when we were teenagers.”

“Tanya is one of the most giving and selfless people I have ever known,” said Bill. “I know she’d do the same thing for me if I had MS.”

Their friendship has lasted more than two decades. Tanya was one of Bill’s first girlfriends; they dated when he was just 14 years old. Tanya remembers going to high school events with Bill and watching him walk across the stage at his commencement ceremony when he graduated from law school at the University of Detroit-Mercy.

But the MS 150 wasn’t something they had shared. The annual bike ride was something that Tanya was involved with for 10 years before she was diagnosed with MS.

“I enjoyed doing the bike ride, and I ended up riding it alone in the years after that because I thought it was too much to ask anybody to join me,” Tanya said. “But once I was diagnosed, everyone came out to help me.”

Her most recent team consisted of nine riders including Bill and Melissa.

In 2007, Circle of Friends raised $24,189 and finished in fifth place among all teams participating in the bike ride and was 10th among all teams participating in each MS fundraising event, including the MS Walk, MS 150, and the MS Longest Day of Golf.

Bill is confident that he can work in enough training within the months leading up to the 2008 MS 150, now called the Bike MS Great Lakes Breakaway Mid-Michigan Ride.

But he also knows that to reach his lifetime goal of $2 million, he will have to work on fundraising throughout the year.

To donate to Bill’s cause, visit main.nationalmssociety. org/site/TR?pg=teamlist&fr_id=9081 and click on Circle of Friends. — VIEW Staff and Dan Digmann contributed to this story