Biking for bread: Longtime Eau Claire bicyclist who fought regional hunger dies

Dec. 2—EAU CLAIRE — Larry Everson grew up two blocks from St. John's Lutheran Church and was a regular churchgoer.

Naturally shy and dealing with some developmental disabilities, he often sat by himself at coffee hours and enjoyed a few treats.

That all changed one day when a couple church members asked him what he liked to do and he explained that he enjoyed biking. An ensuing brainstorming session led to the idea that he might enjoy getting involved in a biking fundraiser for a good cause.

"It just kind of blossomed from there," said St. John's member John Price, who joined fellow pallbearers Jeff Henry, Randy Lundblad and Duane Erickson to share memories of Everson before his funeral on Wednesday.

Everson, 75, died Nov. 24 at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire.

Everson took the idea of a biking fundraiser and ran with it. More accurately, he biked with it — racking up more than 75,000 miles in support of Feed My People Food Pantry in Eau Claire.

As Everson loved to tell anyone who would listen, "That's three times around the world without leaving the Chippewa Valley."

In spring 2002, Everson, then 55, started the project that would become his mission in life. He called it Biking for Bread, and the goal was to help fight hunger in northwestern Wisconsin through donations to the regional food bank.

Everson, whose faith was important to him, always said the Holy Spirit told him to pick Feed My People as his charity of choice, so he did, recalled Henry, a retired IRS employee who met Everson in the 1980s when he worked as a custodian in the downtown building formerly occupied by the agency.

In addition to seeking financial support from church members and other friends, the once-demure Everson became known for approaching total strangers on the Chippewa River, Red Cedar and Old Abe state trails to explain Biking for Bread and give them a handout with instructions on how they could donate to Feed My People.

"Eventually, he was able to get up in front of the whole sanctuary and actually talk to people about Biking for Bread," said Price, who was involved in the initial conversation that sparked the effort. "That really brought him out of his shell. He'd talk to anybody about donating money."

In 12 years of pedaling and fundraising, Everson raised about $30,000 for Feed My People, where he earned the unofficial title "The Great Ambassador" from the nonprofit's former executive director Emily Moore.

After health issues prompted Everson to retire from Biking for Bread in 2014, he persisted with his fundraising efforts on behalf of Feed My People, helping to raise an additional $12,000 through Larry's Legacy Bike Ride, organized by supporters at St. John's.

Just three weeks ago, Everson slipped Erickson a handwritten note — something that became a weekly tradition when the two men met for breakfast at Perkins — with his lifetime fundraising total of $42,515.

"He was very proud of that total," said Erickson, who also met Everson while working for the IRS.

The men forged a connection, in part because Erickson has a son with developmental disabilities, and Erickson helped Everson with grocery shopping and other tasks over the years.

The pallbearers, who all helped Everson in their own way, agreed he had a remarkable memory for details — how many miles he'd ridden, dates of fundraising events, how much money he'd raised, what the weather was like for some big rides — and wasn't shy about sharing that information. They laughed at the memory of Everson sometimes wearing shirts and hats showing his mileage, sometimes with the latest numbers scribbled in by hand to keep the statistics up to date.

A few people questioned the statistics, but Erickson, Price, Lundblad and Henry have no doubt about the veracity of Everson's claims.

"Larry would not lie," Erickson insisted. "He used a digital speedometer that tracked his mileage and he kept track of that really carefully. Those miles are accurate whether some people believe it or not."

Everson's friends recalled that at times he would ride circles around a local cemetery just to keep racking up the miles — both for charity and to achieve incentives. Terry Hintz, owner of the former Eau Claire Bike & Sport, donated at least two bikes to Everson as well as providing great deals on service over the years when he met mileage goals.

The men also remember tagging along with Everson on rides and struggling to keep up with him. They mentioned one particularly energetic day when Everson set out to log 80 miles but ended up covering 110.

"We all have ridden with him," Lundblad said. "You didn't have to slow down for him, but he had to slow down for you. He was like a machine."

Indeed, one of his friends coined another nickname for Everson several years ago: The Lean Mean Bicycling Machine. Everson liked it so much that he openly contemplated the possibility of requesting it be engraved on his gravestone.