MIAMI (WSVN) - A City of Miami Police officer peddled with a purpose.
On Tuesday morning, Miami Police Officer Joseph McCrink finished his 1,000-mile bike ride for the Live Like Bella Foundation.
He was met by fellow officers outside of the Miami Police Headquarters located at 400 N.W. 2nd Ave.
“He dedicated this entire month to ride to raise money for childhood cancer, and we couldn’t be any prouder,” said Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina.
“I just rode a bike, but the hard part is having cancer and surviving cancer,” said McCrink.
The annual Live Like Bella Ride, hosted during childhood cancer awareness month, would have officers and first responders riding to Key West or Walt Disney World with the Miami Police Department to benefit the Live Like Bella Foundation, but it was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, so McCrink took it upon himself to ride 1,000 miles in an effort to bring awareness and gather donations for childhood cancer.
“I wanted to do something special, and being that we’re just coming out of this pandemic, children with cancer, they are suffering through this hard time as well as we are,” said McCrink. “Obviously, because of the pandemic, we weren’t able to do it this year, so I came up with, ‘Well, I can do it by myself, you know, I won’t infect anybody.”
And he would not stop until he finished. He rode his bike two times a day including up to 70 miles on the weekend while also working full time protecting and serving the community until he reached the ultimate goal.
“Every morning, I’d check my fundraising goal, and I would see people that I don’t even know that donated $25, $50, $100 and that gave me the inspiration like, you know, I can’t let these people down,” said McCrink.
In such a trying and difficult year for so many, the foundation is beyond grateful for his relentless ride.
“Thank you for what you did in this particularly tough year. Families with children who are battling cancer are really counting on us, so thank you, Joe,” said CEO Nicole de Larapuente.
Live Like Bella honors the late Bella Rodriguez-Torres who fought an aggressive childhood cancer for several years.
McCrink raised just short of $20,000, which is almost $5,000 more than his original goal.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.