Hide Article Text (OCR)
Phess-TelegramTUESDAY, DEC. 4, 1975-SEC. B, PAGE 1 ••Bike-riding amputee has$millionStory and Photo.By BOB SANDERSA handsomely bearded, 25-year-old bos Alamitos' man has one leg, two crutches, a bicycle, and a goal of raising a million dollars for charily.Mickey Massicotte of 4752 Green Ave. lost his left leg when a land mine exploded under his tank in Vietnam in 1989.He picked up the crutches shortlv thereafter in an Army hospital.He bought the bicycle from earnings selling cars and real estate in Los • • Alamitos.He chose his goal after “reluming from, a bad drug trip five months ago and, as he says, “accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior.That’s a pretty quick run-down on the career of Mickey Massicotte, hut it hits the high — and low - points.RIGHT NOW he is ir. the process of achieving his $1 million goal by riding his bicycle 3,000 miles in his own bike-a-Ihon. •_ y:.:*Tm going to raise a million dollars,” he says forcefully, “and give it all to the American Cancer Society and the March of Dimes.And, if determination has anything to do with it, he will.His plan, which he has already started on, is to ride his bicycle the 3,003 miles around the city of Las Alamitos, collecting pledges of 10 cents or more a mile from anyone and everyone who will make the pledge.He started his “ride Nov. 8 and, originally intended to do 30 miles a day.However, he has since revised his plan because of the demands of going 1o real estate training school and making a living for his wife, Peggy, and fheir two small children.• Now he intends to do at least 10 miles a day until he has ridden the 3.000 miles. He estimates it will take “more than six months but not a year. iRIGHT NOW he has logged “about 150 miles” on his bike’s odometer since he first began riding Nov. 6.But wait till 1 get in shape ” he says. ■With his left pantlcg knotted well above the knee he shows a certain grace as he pedals along the street using his / wooden crutch placed upside down on the left pedal to help him pedal.- “When I first got the bike i tied the metal crutch on the bar, he explains,. “and then I didn’t know what to do with the longer wooden one. So, 1 put it on the pedal to see if I could tie it there.“It felt so comfortable that I decided to use it to push the pedal down. It not only worked but it helped my balance.. Despite his lack of leg he also rides a motorcycle very well, to the wonder-. ment of his father, Paul, and the rest of the family.But he has made his family, which includes two brothers and a sister, wonder about him for some time.MICKEY MASSICOTTE Rides for charilyAfter his discharge from the service he went on a wandering spree.HE SAYS he hitchhiked across the United States, into Canada and traveled ir.lo South America before coming back to Southern California where he got “in and out of jail, on drugs, married, then divorced and reconciled.It was his ill-fated drug trip during which he took an almost fatal overdose of whaL he calls an angel dust which he says is a powerful animal tranquilizer that turned him on to religion and made him “move for Jesus.. He seems to have a plethora of projects going full blasl most of the lime.RIGHT NOW. his “ride has top priority.In addition to riding himself and getting pledges for charily contributions, he also wants to get “a lot of other people to join him in a mass bike ride along Katclla Avenue in Los Alamitos to raise even more money.AND AFTER his ride, what?Well, he hopes to carve out a careci for himself selling real estate.And, of course, there will always blt; olhcr projects.Members in Puerto Rirn
Newspaper Details
Press Telegram
Long Beach, California, US
Tue, Dec 04, 1973
Page 30
Full Page
Clipped by
Kim S.
OH, USA 23 May 2017
Other Publications Near Long Beach, California
Independent Long Beach
Independent Press Telegram
Press Telegram
Independent
Long Beach Press Telegram
