Pedal to the mettle

Enlarge Image

Winnipegger gave up career as furniture industry executive to become a full-time cycling philanthropist. (WAYNE.GLOWACKI@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

Arvid Loewen was only six hours into Race Across America — the longest bike race in the world — when he hit the scorching 45C temperatures of California’s Mojave Desert.

The Winnipeg father of three knew he might not survive it.

"Immediately my legs, my calves, my arms and my hands, everything was cramping up completely even though I was drinking water," recalls Loewen. "How do you comprehend being on a bike for 12 days when you're already in that kind of a state after six hours?"

Pretty soon his neck muscles seized. The only way the North Kildonan resident could keep his head up and see the road in front of him was with his hand propped under his chin.

"This was not a solution," he says. "I would never make it to the end like that."

His quick-thinking son and son-in-law, part of his support crew, stopped at a hardware store and built a sling out of tubing and duct tape.

"When you're going through this kind of adversity... this is a good enough reason to bail," he says. "That is a constant mental struggle that you're going through --just fighting this thought that, 'I want to quit.'"

He didn't quit the 2008 race. Bound to the makeshift neck sling for the next five days and operating on little sleep, Loewen made it to the end, coming in first in his age category and 10th overall.

What got Loewen through the race and through every cycling event he's participated in over the last five years? The African children he's saving.

Since 2006, Loewen, 54, has raised $1.3 million for a cause that has touched his heart: Mully Children's Family (MCF). He uses his love of cycling to raise money and awareness for the Nairobi, Kenya-based organization.

Canadian Mennonite University communications instructor David Balzer has spent time with Loewen during his rides and has watched his friend's fierce tenacity.

"I think without that faith in God component I don't know that he would be able to sustain what has now been over a decade of these incredibly creative ways of raising funds and making a difference with kids," says Balzer.

Loewen's latest goal is to beat a Guinness World Record. In July, the grandfather of three will attempt to cycle from Vancouver to Halifax -- a distance of 6,040 kilometres -- in under two weeks. The current record, set in 1991, is 13 days and six hours.

His mission is to raise more awareness for MCF. The organization is an orphanage that currently houses 2,000 African children rescued from the streets of Kenya.

It was 2006 when Loewen decided to dedicate his life to the orphanage, founded by Charles Mulli, a Kenyan street kid himself before he became a self-made millionaire and decided to help other street children by founding MCF. He quit his job as a Palliser Furniture vice-president and at 49 became a cycling philanthropist. His former boss, the DeFehr family, supported his efforts by paying him a year's salary.

"They first found it a little crazy that one of their executives would be doing these crazy bike rides," says Loewen, who calls the DeFehrs gracious and says they even covered the costs of some of his races. He admits life without a paying job has required him and his wife, Ruth, to make some lifestyle adjustments.

"We sold our second car, we took in a tenant," he says. "We did all kinds of things. And we were able to stretch a one-year salary into 29 months."

Today, Loewen and his wife are tapping into their RRSPs to live. But to Loewen, it's all worth it.

His work ethic, dedication and devout Christianity likely stems from his early life. He was born in South America to Russian immigrant parents.

The youngest of eight children, his parents fled Russia during the revolution. He says they were dumped, along with a boatload of Russian immigrants in the jungle of Paraguay and told to make a go of the land. They did, founding a Mennonite community there that farmed the land and made it flourish.

Loewen moved to Canada with his family when he was 13.

With soccer in his blood (thanks to his South American upbringing) a teenage Loewen was good at the game and served as goalkeeper -- making good use of his 5-foot-8 frame.

"Dealing with adversity is something I've always had to do," he says. "You do have to deal with some forwards who are 6-foot-4. I've always had to be a battler. Probably, that has stood me well for the stuff that I do right now."

He says that concussions and sports injuries led him to a sedentary life for several years after he entered marriage and fatherhood. Frustrated by his lack of physical fitness, a 30-something Loewen decided to drag his old bike out of the garage one day and take it for a spin.

After riding 30 kilometres, he called his wife to pick him up because he was too exhausted to return home. But it eventually got him pedalling in a different direction in life.

Today Loewen walks with a limp that he attributes to osteoarthritis, a condition he theorizes is exacerbated by both his malnourishment as a kid and sports injuries. He's scheduled for a hip replacement in the fall. Given cycling is easier for him than walking, he's confident that he has a better than even chance of setting a Guinness record.

He is training daily on an old bike, soliciting sponsors and getting ready to launch a media blitz to draw national attention to his cause.

What drives him is the image of a little girl from Kenya. He chokes up when describing the moment he met her. Before then, he had carried her picture around. Seeing her in person, however, changed everything for him.

"Why do I choose to attempt to break the Guinness world record as a 54-year-old grandpa? It's very simple. I would like to engage as many people as possible to see a child instead of a picture. When that happens the world is going to be a different place."

Have an interesting story idea you'd like Shamona to write about? Contact her at shamona.harnett@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 22, 2011 D1