Milford resident biking cross country this summer

BALTIMORE - Milford resident Ryan terMeulen is one of 27 students and recent graduates participating in a 4,000-mile coast-to-coast bicycle journey known as Hopkins 4K for Cancer. The journey began Memorial Day weekend in Baltimore and will end on July 30 at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The students, 20 of whom are from Johns Hopkins, are cycling across the country to raise money and promote a healthy lifestyle. Along the way, they are stopping in big cities and small towns for service projects, volunteering their youthful energy to local community groups in honor of their friends and loved ones affected by the disease. To date, this year’s fundraising effort has netted more than $70,000 for the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge, a residence for out-of-town cancer patients seeking treatment at Baltimore hospitals. Since the first trip in 2002, the students have raised $276,000 for cancer charities. terMeulen, 23, earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and music composition from Johns Hopkins on May 25. “What is a life if it cannot be used to touch others in some way? This recent realization has drawn me to the Hopkins 4K and its inspiring cause,” he said. “I am extremely fortunate to have never had a close encounter with cancer. I deeply want to deserve this blessing, and hope that this journey will leave me with an appreciation of the brave struggles waged by countless individuals on a daily basis. This summer, then, I ride to support the fight against cancer, but I also ride with the broader purpose of renewing hope in humanity, both for myself and for everyone I meet on the way,” terMeulen concluded.