Team Sugarbee Peddles To Take The Sting Out Of MS

DENVER (CBS4) - Bike MS draws some 4,000 cyclists including teams that collect hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Colorado Chapter of the National MS Society.

LINK: Donate to Team Sugarbee

Among those teams is Team Sugarbee. It formed 25 years ago among the friends and family of Kelly Walker after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The team got it's name from Kelly's childhood nickname -- "Sugarbee."

"We're not scientists so we can't find a cure. But we wanted to raise money for that. We can certainly do that," said Tim Walker Junior, team captain.

Team Sugarbee started out with just six people and has grown of the years to include as many as 100. While Kelly's sibling have taken of the challenge of biking more than 100 miles, her parents spent 20 years running a rest stop. Tim Walker Sr. and his wife retired this year.

"My wife, who is a splendid organizer, organized some 40 to 50 volunteers consisting of family, friends, colleagues. It was a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun," said Tim Walker Sr.

Each year the team raises around $100,000 for the Colorado/Wyoming chapter of the National MS Society. Team Sugarbee was the first team to reach the $1 million fundraising mark.

"We watched this disease take the best athlete in our family. We watched her go from a gate, to a walker, to a wheelchair, to a power wheelchair, now pretty much 100-percent physically dependent over the years," said Eric Walker.