Polk County resident and Saluda/Asheville firefighter Richard Rauschenbach will participate in the Carolina Brotherhood cycling event July 23-27.

Rauschenbach will join 29 other firefighters from the Carolinas in the event, in which firefighters and police officers ride in the name of their fallen brothers and sisters from the Carolinas.

This year’s ride is dedicated to Captain Jeffery Bowen from the Asheville Fire Department. He died last July 28 while operating at a commercial structure fire. Bowen is survived by his mother, wife and three children. All proceeds from the ride will go to the Bowen family.

The ride will start in Wilmington, N.C. on July 23 and end five days later in Asheville, N.C. on July 27, covering almost 400 miles. The riders will have overnight stops in Elizabethtown, Rockingham, Charlotte, Forest City and Asheville. The ride will average 75 miles a day and end with a 6,000 foot elevation climb on the last day into Asheville.

The final leg of the ride will occur on July 27, beginning in Forest City and continuing through Lake Lure and Hendersonville on the way to Asheville.

For more information visit carolinabrotherhood.com/riders.html.

– article submitted by Joni Rauschenbach