St. Raymond’s Brother Galvin Bikes 465 Miles For Charity

Brother Richard Galvin, the campus minister at St. Raymond’s High School for Boys is a proficient bicyclist. He routinely leaves his Castle Hill home, rides down Bruckner Boulevard, over the Third Avenue bridge, bikes the perimeter of Manhattan and then back up into the Bronx, returning home through Van Cortlandt Park.

But none of that could prepare him for the mountains of western Pennsylvania.

From Monday, August 8 until Saturday, August 13, Brother Galvin road his bike 465 miles from Pittsburgh to the shore of the Atlantic in Long Branch, N.J. The trip was part of LV’s Ride, a cross-continent bike trip organized by faculty and staff members from LaSallian Catholic schools across the country. Each rider solicited donors, with all proceeds going to support LaSallian schools in poor, under-served communities.

Twelve riders made the entire trip, which started at the Pacific coast in Oregon on Tuesday, June 14. Others, like Brother Galvin, joined for regional segments.

“The Allegheny mountains are very, very hilly,” he said. “My worry going into it was that I would have to get into the support van they had. I also thought I would have to walk up some hills and maybe get in the van. But I think I had done my homework well enough in the spring so that I was ready.”

The ride raised over $100,000. Brother Galvin brought in $3,000. The trip was inspired by a 2001 ride by LaSallian educators to promote literacy.

Brother Galvin said the best part of the ride was making friends with fellow Catholic school teachers from all over the country.

“It was great camaraderie,” he said. “When you’re riding with a group you’re relying on each other. We each had partners to keep track of.”

There were between 15 and 20 riders on Borther Galvin’s segment of the trip, depending on how many riders joined or left on a given day.

The trip concluded with all the riders symbolically dipping their wheels in the Atlantic Ocean. The group that started the trip wet theirs in the Pacific.

In addition to his role as campus minister, Galvin a has very athletic presence at St. Raymond’s. The 47-year-old coaches both soccer and lacrosse.