By EMS1 Staff
OXON HILL, Md. — Nearly 200 National EMS Memorial Bike Ride participants will arrive at the Plaza at National Harbor in Washington D.C. at 4 p.m. on Friday, May 17, in honor of EMS and air medical professionals who died in the line of duty or from non-duty-related causes.
The participants began their journey in Boston on Saturday and will have traveled over 500 miles when they reach the National Harbor, according to a press release by the National EMS Memorial Foundation.
The riders will be traveling with dog tags inscribed with the names of 75 individuals they have ridden in memory of over the last week. Those names can include anyone from the industry, regardless of whether they died in a duty-related incident or not.
“Participants in the National EMS Memorial Bike Rides honor the lives of EMS providers who were perhaps their friends, family or coworkers by pedaling their bicycles over many miles of challenging terrain,” National EMS Memorial Bike Ride President Brian Shaw said. “A challenge that, no matter how hard or how grueling, is a reminder that we are here and able to complete this task and shall never forget those that have left us all too soon.”
The completion of the bike ride on Friday is followed by the Weekend of Honor, an event organized and hosted by the National EMS Memorial Bike Ride, National EMS Memorial Service and the National EMS Memorial Foundation. On Saturday, May 18, 26 EMS providers who died in the line of duty in 2018 will be honored at the National EMS Memorial Service.