Clovis student plans 3,780-mile bike ride to aid veterans

Brock Kitchen’s 3,780-mile bike ride was meant to do something more measurable than test his endurance: raise about $6,000, enough to send four more veterans on Central Valley Honor Flight’s free trips to Washington, D.C.

The Fresno City College student from Clovis had been training with long days in the saddle, including 80-mile rides on school days and 140- to 150-mile rides on weekends. Kitchen planned to ride across the country while his retired father followed behind in an RV, turning the trip into a rolling fundraiser for a local nonprofit with a waiting list of its own.

Central Valley Honor Flight said each trip costs roughly $1,500 per veteran for charter aircraft, buses, lodging and meals. That puts the target for four additional seats at a little more than the price of a used car repair, and it comes at a moment when the organization says demand still outpaces funding. Paul Loeffler, the nonprofit’s founder, said the group had enough money for one more flight this year but still needed more funding before October to keep its schedule moving.

The local Honor Flight hub is an official affiliate of Honor Flight Network and serves veterans across California’s Central Valley, from Tulare to Stockton. Priority goes first to World War II veterans, with Korean War and Vietnam War veterans eligible on a space-available basis. The nonprofit says it honors veterans by sending them to Washington, D.C. at no cost so they can visit their memorials with guardians and support personnel at their side.

Kitchen’s motivation was personal. He said he became serious about cycling after his first triathlon, but the Honor Flight cause also connected to family history. One grandfather was present at Pearl Harbor, and another served in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

He also planned to make the ride a daily tribute. Kitchen said each day of the trip would be dedicated to a different veteran, with that veteran’s story shared online to push more people to learn from veterans in their own hometowns. For Fresno County, the point was not just the miles. It was whether a student’s ride could help fill the gap between one more flight and the larger schedule Central Valley Honor Flight still needed to fund.

The local program has already moved thousands of veterans through that pipeline. Since its inaugural flight in October 2013, Central Valley Honor Flight says it has raised more than $6 million, funded 30 flights and transported more than 2,010 veterans. Kitchen’s effort aimed to add four more names to that list.