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Smaller textMotorcyclists ride to raise funds for Flight 93 memorial
Personal cause
James Knox/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Craig Smith is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review staff writer and can be reached at 412-380-5646 or via e-mail.
Rae Killebrew-Amadio wanted to ride a motorcycle across the country since she got her first Harley 15 years ago.
"It was No. 1 on my bucket list, followed by skydiving and whitewater rafting," said Killebrew-Amadio, 68, a great-grandmother from Austintown, Ohio.
She never got the chance -- until she heard about Ride With the 40, an 11-day coast-to-coast ride to raise money for the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville in Somerset County.
Killebrew-Amadio found an opportunity to combine her love for motorcycles with a cause she believes in.
"I'm just a very patriotic person," she said Friday in Monroeville before starting the second leg of the journey with two other motorcyclists. A group of 23 riders who began the trip Thursday morning dwindled to three, but organizers expect other bikers to join the ride as they head west.
The group left Newark on Thursday to follow the route United Airlines Flight 93 would have taken before its hijacking and crash in a Somerset County field Sept. 11, 2001. The bikers expect to reach San Francisco on Sept. 11.
The jetliner was the fourth plane hijacked by terrorists. It was being diverted to Washington when some of its 40 passengers and crew members stormed the cockpit, preventing the Islamic extremists from reaching their target.
The group of motorcyclists visited the crash site. It was Killebrew-Amadio's first time there.
"It just tore my heart out," she said.
"It's always emotional at Shanksville," said Erich Bay, 72, of Windsor, N.J., who is making the ride for his wife, Lorraine, who was a flight attendant on Flight 93.
Ride organizers hope to raise $1 million toward the $30 million needed for the first phase of construction of the Flight 93 National Memorial, which is scheduled to be dedicated Sept. 11, 2011.
Family members say the memorial is necessary so America never forgets what happened.
"That's the bottom line. People forget very easily," said Frank Szczech, 65, of Trenton, N.J., who is riding with Bay.
The bikers planned to spend last night in Three Rivers, Mich., and leave today for Coralville, Iowa.
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