By Tim Healy
tim.healy@newsday.com
Kent Gillin, a senior at Cold Spring Harbor High School whose parents were once told he might never walk, is five days into a bicycle trip from Vancouver, British Columbia, to San Francisco to raise money for a charity of Hall of Fame hockey player Pat LaFontaine.
Gillin, who turns 18 next month, set off Saturday on the 1,045-mile ride with his father, Paul, and had covered more than 200 miles by last night. They leave Aberdeen Washington today and hope to reach Astoria, Oregon by tonight. They plan on crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on Aug. 23.
“I wanted to do a ride of some length, also as a fun thing,” Gillin said before leaving Long Island. “But it’s turned into a much bigger thing.”
The high school hockey and baseball player plans to follow up next summer with a fundraising ride from San Francisco to Mexico.
"It's been fine," he said last night of their voyage so far. "We don't have any major problems yet."
LaFontaine’s charity, the Companions in Courage Foundation, builds interactive playrooms in children’s hospitals throughout North America. It is supported in part by corporations such as Microsoft and Cisco Systems. One such playroom opened informally this week at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian.
Gillin’s mother, Mia, said her son and husband had already raised more than $23,000 from friends and family members, close to their goal of $25,000. Anyone wishing to track the bikers’ progress, or donate, can visit www.active.com/donate/CiCKent
for a daily log.
Complications at birth lead to multiple health challenges for Gillin, but after work by therapists and teachers, he began to walk by age 3 ½, and he overcame his health problems by the fifth grade.
Caption: Gillin, left, races earlier this year on Long Island
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