Cyclist Rides 740 Miles for ROMP

Greg Krupa, a 21-year-old field-research coordinator for the Range of Motion Project (ROMP), has committed to cycling across the American landscape until he raises $10,000 in donations for the project, which provides orthotic and prosthetic care and devices in developing countries. Initially, the younger brother of ROMP co-founder and CEO David Krupa, CP, planned to ride from Kansas City to Chicago, 520 miles, but on the fourth day of his ride, he committed to riding until he had completed his fundraising goal. As of September 15, he has ridden more than 740 miles and raised $2,882, braving massive rainstorms, speeding 18-wheelers, and days that sometimes span more than 80 miles.

In his blog at www.rompglobal.org/blog.php, Greg Krupa describes the pleasures and perils of traveling across country, spending nights at churches and with church-affiliated families, accepting the kindness of bike mechanics, and even occasionally taking time off to catch a baseball game. On September 11, he wrote, "I now have travelled through four states, and my opinion of each one has changed. I have waged against the sun, the rain, the wind, long distances, and my own will power, but it has all been worth every pedal of the way. I have experienced American life and culture in a way I have never been privy to before and have more positive to say than negative. I hope that my ride continues to be as fruitful and educational as it continues to prove to be."

The former University of Kansas student left his studies as a sophomore in 2006 to work for a year in ROMP's clinics in Zacapa, Guatamala, and Quito, Ecuador. In his "Achieved Efforts and New Endeavors" statement on the ROMP website, he wrote, "I did everything from repainting to reorganizing, streamlining ROMP's daily work output and efficiency. I learned to help evaluate patients, treat patients, fabricate prosthetics/orthotics, manage disease prevention and awareness projects, and many other daily activities that ROMP strives to perform with utter excellence and precision. One of my major goals with ROMP was doing a small, but important research project."

That research project collected the Zacapa clinic's patient amputee demographics and demonstrated that 60 percent of patients treated there by ROMP were employed, compared to just 10 percent of untreated amputees in the area, and that "prosthetic users rated their ability to move freely and do everyday tasks at 88 percent, while untreated amputees ranked their ability to move freely and do everyday tasks at 30 percent; using a series of questions to gauge quality of life, ROMP patients said their quality of life on average was 84 percent, compared to the control group's response of just 34 percent."

After the ride, Krupa plans to volunteer in New Orleans, then continue his education at the University of Oregon, leading to a graduate degree in non-profit management. Krupa told the University Daily Kansan, "I couldn't just go through school and graduate.... I had to go out and get my hands dirty."

To donate to Krupa's efforts through the ROMP-a-thon fundraising project, visit www.rompglobal.org/fundraising_gkrupa.php