Ride for The Shelter featured in Naples Daily News
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Three men left Seventh Avenue Social on Saturday morning on bikes. Collier deputies escorted them north to the county line for the first few miles of their journey. They’d be on their own for the next 1,200.
By now, they’re four days into a 12-day ride from Naples to Washington, D.C. And they’re doing it all for a cause they say more men need to get behind: ending domestic violence.
“Domestic violence accounts for nearly 30 percent of all violent crime in this county,” said Gordon Kellam, one of three men riding this week. “Homelessness is something we can see and feel, unfortunately, but domestic violence is not.”
Kellam, 37, is a financial adviser and the managing director for BB&T Scott & Stringfellow. He’s riding alongside Colin Estrem, the owner of Seventh Avenue Social, and Glen Schwesinger, vice president of investments with UBS Financial Services. Together, they’re trying to raise $100,000 for The Shelter for Abused Women & Children in Naples.
During the ride, they’ll be making stops in key cities such as Jacksonville and Charlotte, North Carolina, to talk with politicians and representatives from local shelters with the final stop in Washington, D.C.
“With Naples’ wealth, we tend to think these issues don’t exist,” Kellam said.
Their interest in the group started a few years back while attending various fundraising events and tailgate parties through the shelter’s program called Gentle’men Against Domestic Violence. The program helps raise money and support for the shelter’s eight-week school outreach initiative called the Raising Gentlemen Program.
“Some of the ideas they’re challenging in sessions is the media’s images of men as being sort of aggressive and hyper masculine,” said Linda Oberhaus, executive director of the shelter. “They look at the male image and female stereotypes and then create a new paradigm, giving boys and young men permission to talk in the world a different way.”
Oberhaus said the Gentle’men group has doubled in attendance since it began in 2008 from 100 to 200 members.
“Domestic violence is not a woman’s issue, and it truly takes a whole community to end domestic violence,” Oberhaus said. “I commend all three of them.”
It’s not the first time the guys have done something radical to raise money. Two years ago, Kellam and Schwesinger climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for the shelter. This time, they decided to challenge themselves by biking. None of the three are cyclists.
They’ve been training for the past year, spending as much time on their bikes as possible and logging back-to-back 70-mile days.
“We’re prepared in a sense but we’ve never it done it for this length of time,” Kellam said. “It’s one of these moments where we’ll have to figure out what our bodies are capable of.”
You can monitor’s the trio’s ride online at naplesshelter.org/ride. Donations can be made at the same site.
