Rebecca Mueller/Winonan

Winona State University student Patrick Dimpsey loves to bike. This summer, he’ll find out just how far that love will take him.

Dimpsey, a junior professional studies major focusing on marketing and communication, is preparing to bicycle across Iceland and other parts of Europe this summer as part of an international campaign to raise awareness about Huntington’s Disease.

The Iceland trip is one of two trips sponsored by the non-profit student-led organization Camp Earth and will last from May 8 to June 7.

The trip will begin in Reykjavik, Iceland and follow a route along the outer edge of the island nation.

The route will continue to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.

“We’re just a group of people that are trying to make a difference in the HD community,” said Dimpsey, who founded and now leads Camp Earth.

Huntington’s Disease is a degenerative brain disorder similar to multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease that takes away a person’s mental and physical capabilities over time. An estimated 30,000 Americans are battling the disease.

Parents who have the gene for Huntington’s Disease have a fifty percent chance of passing it along to their children. It is possible for this gene to skip a generation. There is no effective treatment or cure.

Dimpsey first began his efforts in 2010 after a friend’s father passed away as a result of Huntington’s Disease. The same friend’s brother has started to show symptoms as well.

Before Camp Earth’s first bike tour across the United States in 2011, the farthest Dimpsey had ever gone had been 40 miles.

Bicycle tours are effective for raising awareness as well as donations. On bicycles, they are able to travel slow enough to attract the attention of people living in each town they travel through. This gives them the chance to talk with lots of people and raise awareness about Huntington’s Disease.

“It raises more questions,” he said.

The bike tours are designed to raise donations for the Great Lakes chapter of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America, or HDSA. Camp Earth members will raise money through word-of-mouth promotion and fundraisers. The bike tours themselves are self-funded by the participants.

“We’ve done everything from raking leaves to, obviously, riding across America,” said Dimpsey.

Camp Earth raised $10,000 for HDSA during the 2011 bike tour across America. The organization’s efforts have raised awareness about Huntington’s Disease all over the country and inspired a number of people to take action.

The original route of the international bike tour would have taken participants across Canada. Dimpsey recently decided to move the bike tour to Iceland and Scandinavia instead.

“It changed basically due to time,” said Dimpsey. The original trip to Canada would have lasted two and a half months, whereas the Iceland trip will last just one month.

Currently, two people including Dimpsey will be participating in the Iceland bike tour, although others may join later.

Camp Earth is also sponsoring a bike tour around the Great Lakes in the United States, in which five people are currently planning to participate.

Deborah Boyd, the great lakes regional development director of the HDSA, said, “It’s just amazing the awareness Camp Earth has managed to create about Huntington’s Disease. The more we talk about HD, the more the public understands about this devastating disease and how it affects families.”

Contact Rebecca at [email protected]