Michigan Pair To Bike For Cystic Fibrosis Research

What began as kind of a boring summer has been turned into something positive for a pair of Lenawee County residents.

Ellie Jacques and Matt Roberts are doing a fundraiser for cystic fibrosis research by taking a 150-mile bike ride from Clinton to South Haven and back.

"We were actually kind of lazy the first part of this summer and started riding our bikes longer distances,'' Jacques said. ``One day we rode to Saline and on another we rode to Ann Arbor, which is about 45 miles from my house.''

With the pair building up their stamina and endurance, they talked about wanting to do something meaningful.

"We started tossing around ideas about what we wanted to do and thought it would be cool to do something like this,'' Jacques said.

"We decided we wanted to raise money for the research into cystic fibrosis.''

Both know people who have cystic fibrosis, including Katie Martin, who was featured in a June 10 story in The Daily Telegram. Knowing people who have the disease made it more personal for Jacques and Roberts.

The two have been collecting pledges and donations from family, friends and people at their churches. They are also planning bottle collection drives at several places around Lenawee County.

Roberts, 19, is enrolled at the Jackson campus of Jackson Community College. Jacques, 18, will be heading to St. Mary's College at Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., where she will study international business relations and minor in photography.

Until then, they've got some unfinished business to address.

``We figure on making 50 miles a day, so it should take about three days to get (to South Haven) and three days back,'' Jacques said.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)