Karchers to ride 550 miles for charity

Mountain Brook resident Gerald Karcher has been an avid cyclist for three decades. His wife Gina, however, only picked it up a little more than a year ago when she was preparing for the Pablove Across America charity bike ride.

The seven-day trek from San Francisco to Los Angeles covered more than 500 miles.

“She got through that whole ride pretty much unscathed,” Gerald Karcher said.

This year, the Karchers will attempt to repeat the feat. From Sept. 28 to Oct. 5, they will participate in the same charity ride with 48 other cyclists who will navigate a course from Lake Tahoe to Los Angeles.

They’ll be doing it to raise money for the Pablove Foundation, which raises money for pediatric cancer research.

“What they do is, they give seed grants to researchers who are doing sort of cutting-edge research into pediatric cancer treatments,” Gerald Karcher said. “Instead of just throwing money at big organizations, they try to pick individuals who are doing really innovative, neat things and try to give them a little leg up.”

Gerald Karcher’s childhood friend, Jo Ann Thrailkill, founded the Pablove Foundation 11 years ago with her husband, Jeff Castelaz, in honor of their son. Pablo Thrailkill Castelaz was only 6 when he passed away from kidney cancer.

“During that process, they got pretty frustrated to some extent with the lack of available treatments for pediatric cancer,” Gerald Karcher said. “They did a lot of research into it, and they discovered it’s really not that well-funded.”

Pablo’s parents wanted to do something about it. The foundation and its charity bike ride are both results. According to the foundation’s website, pablove.org, it has donated more than $2.8 million to cancer research since its inception.

Gerald Karcher said he decided to participate in last year’s ride after Jo Ann Thrailkill, who isn’t an avid cyclist, told him she was riding. Gina Karcher then expressed her interest, too.

“It’s kind of turned her into a cyclist really,” Gerald Karcher said of his wife. “She took it up basically to train to do Pablove, and she’s kind of kept doing it.”

The Karchers rode frequently to prepare for this year’s 550-mile trek, which cuts through Yosemite National Park. They hopped on the bike a couple of times during the week and logged at least one 50-miler on the weekends. During the Pablove ride, participants will cover around 75 miles per day.

“It’s a pretty big commitment,” Gerald Karcher said.

The Karchers raised $21,000 by participating in the 2018 event, which Gerald Karcher said netted about $900,000 total for the foundation. The couple is on track to raise a similar amount of money this year, Karcher said. Donations can be made by visiting their fundraising website, https://give.pablove.org/fundraiser/1821021.

At this year’s ride, Gerald Karcher said he is most looking forward to reconnecting with riders he met last year and taking in the picturesque scenery.

“A lot of your fellow riders, a lot of them are doing it because they’ve had either children who have been touched by cancer or friends or other things or just have a personal commitment to it,” he said. “To me, that was just the most rewarding thing of all, to meet all of these people who have dedicated so much of their time and money and efforts to participate with this organization.”