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Renee Jean of Las Vegas takes a break for a photo from her bike trek across the country along Route 66 stopping in Adrian, Texas. Jean started her trip in Chicago on Sept. 22 and is riding to raise awareness and funds for organizations that aid those with trauma.
Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022 | 2 a.m.
Renee Jean has always been ambitious. Because of mental health issues like anxiety and depression, however, many of the goals she set for herself growing up went unmet.
But her father always urged her to believe in herself and follow through on the things she set out to do, Jean said.
So, five years after he passed away, Jean embarked on a 60-mile bike ride for what would have been his 60th birthday.
“And even though he was gone, I felt like he was with me on the ride,” she said. “ … So I started doing bike rides and exercise challenges as a way to handle whenever I was having one of my flare-ups with my anxiety.”
Now, the Las Vegas casino dealer and author is nearing the end of the longest bike ride of her life. Since kicking off Sept. 22 in Chicago, Jean has cycled across the country along historic Route 66, in an effort to raise awareness and funds for five charities she handpicked.
Jean’s “Ride 22 on 66” has taken her 2,343 miles and through eight states. Her goal from the start was to raise $11,000 in sponsorships and donations, to be split evenly among the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, the Code Green Campaign and Mission 22.
Each charity corresponds with one of the five books she has published, Jean said, which represent different aspects of trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Riding her bike is one way she copes with her own trauma, Jean said.
“This is something that, while it’s terrifying and it’s overwhelming, it’s also something that’s very healing to me,” Jean said.
The idea for the ride, which she named “22” in honor of the 22 veterans that die from suicide each day, initially came to Jean in 2019. Overall, she said, it has been the culmination of nearly two years’ planning out routes, training and more.
In addition to biking, Jean trained for the ride through yoga, pilates, swimming and more.
Jean’s mother, Gail Fournier, has followed her in a car during the ride. The car is decked out with magnets on either side asking for support, with a QR code that goes directly to the ride’s GoFundMe.
Fournier is excited to see her daughter make the ride, she said, and especially for the moment Thursday when she reaches her final destination — the Santa Monica Pier in California.
“I think it’ll be just wonderful,” Fournier said of seeing Jean make it to the finish line.
Jean, who has worn the name of either a person or an organization she is riding in honor of each day of the trip, said she chose the organizations that she did because it shows people who feel like no one understands what they have gone through that they are not alone.
“These organizations are there to help people find those things that can make it better — find those things that can help release that trauma and deal with it,” she said, citing her biking as an example.
Ruth Glenn, CEO of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said Jean’s effort will not only raise financial donations for organizations like hers, but also awareness for the work they do.
“We need more people like her that are saying, ‘We’ve got to do something about domestic violence,’” she said. “ … I hope others will see it for what it is, which is not only fundraising, but — let's have spaces, and places and environments that make it okay to talk about this issue.”
Jean began the ride in tribute to her father, on what would have been his 70th birthday.
If he was here now, Jean joked, he probably would tell her she could have just saved up the money without the bike ride.
“But at the same time, the fact that I’m sticking through with it, and I’m following through and I’m trying something — even if it might seem like I’m trying something crazy — I think he’d be my biggest cheerleader,” she said. “And he’d be standing right behind me saying, ‘Go get them, and we’ll see you at the finish line.’”
