Electric Cooperatives Host “Ride Across South Carolina” to Raise Awareness for Heart Disease

The Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive Ride Across South Car­oli­na is a sev­en-day, 648-mile ride with stops at 18 coop­er­a­tives. Start­ing on Octo­ber 25th, 2021, in the Upstate and end­ing in the Low Coun­try on Novem­ber 2nd, 20 cyclists will make their way through the state build­ing aware­ness for heart dis­ease and offer­ing heart screen­ings to more than 2,000 elec­tric coop­er­a­tive employ­ees.

The ride was estab­lished in mem­o­ry of Bri­an Kel­ley, for­mer Pres­i­dent of Pee Dee Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, after his untime­ly death from unde­tect­ed heart dis­ease. A Cross­Fit ath­lete and avid golfer, Kel­ley died from a heart attack in 2017. The ride, also ded­i­cat­ed to all coop­er­a­tive employ­ees who have been impact­ed by heart dis­ease or stroke, aims to build aware­ness for heart dis­ease and pro­vide pre­ven­ta­tive edu­ca­tion for coop­er­a­tive employ­ees.

Heart dis­ease is the num­ber one killer in the U.S. with more than 800,000 peo­ple dying annu­al­ly. Accord­ing to the Amer­i­can Heart Asso­ci­a­tion, S.C. has the 14th high­est death rate from car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease in the coun­try. Many of those deaths could have been pre­vent­ed through ear­ly detec­tion and edu­ca­tion. For more infor­ma­tion on heart dis­ease and pre­ven­tion, vis­it www.heart.org.

The Med­ical Uni­ver­si­ty of South Car­oli­na (MUSC) and Clem­son Uni­ver­si­ty’s Rur­al Health Ini­tia­tive will bring the statewide pro­gram, Healthy Me — Healthy SC, to each coop­er­a­tive along the cycle route. The Healthy Me — Healthy SC ini­tia­tive will pro­vide heart screen­ings and edu­ca­tion for all elec­tric coop­er­a­tive employ­ees. Employ­ees will also receive access to a blood pres­sure screen­ing, and Body Com­po­si­tion Screen­ing with an indi­vid­u­al­ized nutri­tion plan.

The Amer­i­can Heart Asso­ci­a­tion, also a statewide part­ner, will also be onsite pro­vid­ing heart and stroke edu­ca­tion.

Jeff Lewis, CEO of Lit­tle Riv­er Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, stat­ed, “We are proud to sup­port and par­tic­i­pate in the Ride Across South Car­oli­na. Our employ­ees are front-line work­ers crit­i­cal to keep our sys­tem up and run­ning, it is impor­tant that they are heart healthy. It is also an oppor­tu­ni­ty to set an exam­ple for the mem­bers we serve.”

The Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive Ride Across South Car­oli­na’s major spon­sors are AFL, First Advan­tage Bank and CBRE, and a large num­ber of oth­er cor­po­rate part­ners are pro­vid­ing finan­cial sup­port for the event. All remain­ing funds will be donat­ed to the Amer­i­can Heart Asso­ci­a­tion and Clem­son’s Rur­al Health Ini­tia­tive.

2021 Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive Ride Across S.C. route:

• Day 1 – Octo­ber 25 (94 miles): Blue Ridge (Pick­ens), Laurens/New Hori­zon (Lau­rens), Lit­tle Riv­er (Abbeville)
• Day 2 – Octo­ber 26 (101 miles): Broad Riv­er (Gaffney), York (York), Lynch­es Riv­er (Page­land)
• Day 3 – Octo­ber 27 (71 miles): Fair­field (Blythe­wood), New­ber­ry (New­ber­ry), Mid-Car­oli­na (Lex­ing­ton)
• Day 4 – Octo­ber 28 (84 miles): Berke­ley (Mon­cks Cor­ner), San­tee (Kingstree), Sumter
• Day 5 – Octo­ber 29 (85 miles): Black Riv­er (Sumter), Hor­ry (Con­way)
• Day 6 – Novem­ber 1 (116 miles): Cen­tral (Colum­bia), Tri-Coun­ty (St. Math­ews), Coastal (Wal­ter­boro)
• Day 7 – Novem­ber 2 (97 miles): Edis­to (Bam­berg), Pal­met­to (Ridge­land)