THE GREAT CONSPIRACY

by Mark Leonard

What would you do for your children? Would you sacrifice your own dreams to make theirs come true? Would you put your body to a physical test unlike anything you have ever experienced? Would you ask your friends for help? Would you ask your friends for money? Would you ride a bike across the country so your daughter could go to the school where she is welcomed, cared for, and finds success?

Would you participate in a “Great Conspiracy” for them?

Doug Richards, a physician in the Inland Empire, is doing all of this for his younger daughter, Brenna, because he considers himself and his wife to be the first and most important advocates of their two children. Brenna has Down’s syndrome.

While Doug and his wife Lynn feel Brenna has had some great experiences at some of the other schools in the area, they wanted her to have a Christian education just like her older sister, Lauren, has had. For the last two years, Redlands Christian School has been the perfect fit for Brenna.

Special Education programs are a tall order for private schools like RCS. The low student/teacher ratio makes it incredibly expensive and rare. Nevertheless, RCS worked out a way to open a special education program in 2006. 

Now Doug and Lynn, along with the rest of the school community, have been challenged to raise the funds needed to keep the program going. After a lot of prayer, thought, and fund-raising false starts, Doug discovered the Race Across America (RAAM)–an annual transcontinental bicycle race that draws riders from around the world.



“Lynn is usually the barometer that I use to measure my crazy ideas,” says Doug about his wife. So when he started talking about entering the Race Across America and he noticed that Lynn hadn’t fallen over in laughter, he took it as a clear indication that it just might work.

So began the “Great Conspiracy.” Doug put together a team of eight riders, four RV drivers, a cook, a massage therapist, and a handful of other volunteers to make it happen. Their months of training were tested in the 62-mile Rotary Club race during the recent Redlands Bicycle Classic. On June 11, the first rider of Team Learning 4 Life will dip his rear bicycle tire in the Pacific Ocean at Oceanside, CA, and begin the 3,008 mile trip across the United States to Annapolis, MD where, ten days later, the last rider will pedal his front tire into the Atlantic Ocean.

Their goal is to raise $150,000 for special education at Redlands Christian School through business sponsorships, grants, and individual donations. By acting on this crazy idea, the Richards’, along with all of the families, friends and supporters of Team Learning 4 Life, have entered into what fellow team rider Rick Nichols describes as, “the great conspiracy for your children to succeed.”

For more information about Team Leaning 4 Life and how you can be a part of this effort, please go to their website: www.teamlearning4life.org.