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American Morning
Stobbs Family Raising Money to Fight Deadly Disease
Aired June 26, 2002 - 09:39 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A lot of you out there planning family vacations for the summer? Some people thinking about a visit to a lake, perhaps a national park or a cruise. Well, the Stobbs family of Atlanta, Georgia has a different take on summer fun, a grueling, cross-country bicycle trip, and they're leaving the comforts of home for a cause. They are raising money to fight a deadly disease.
Our Rhonda Rowland tells us more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Stobbs are a family that doesn't look like a group that's used to roughing it. But this summer, they'll be taking their house -- clothes, cooking supplies, extra tires -- basically everything needed to live for three months, on a bicycle, and riding across the United States.
(on camera): Girls, what about makeup, hair dryer, lipstick?
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, not taking a hair dryer. These are the earrings of the trip.
ROWLAND: So is this where the personality come through, the individuality?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your only accessorizing.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, we can fly it or we can sleep in it.
ROWLAND (voice-over): Camping out, well, there may be a night or two spent in a hotel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at these cute things. Is this not fun?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How's dinner coming, girls?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wonderful. ROWLAND: And cooking dinner over a single flame.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How about chateau briand? Is there anything in there about chateau briand?
ROWLAND: Here, they're holding a dry run of cooking and camping in their backyard. You say you're not really professional bikers?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. No way.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're just get out there on our bikers.
ROWLAND: Yet, the Stobbs family -- Dick, Martha, Katherine and Lili, are giving up the good life to peddle for a cure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're starting in Anicortus, which is north of Seattle.
ROWLAND: And, planning to finish in Boston.
LILI STOBBS, DAUGHTER: As much as it is about our family, and having three months as a family, we're doing it for other people.
ROWLAND: Those other people: victims of leukemia and lymphoma.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is before she was diagnosed.
ROWLAND: Two of Lili's college sorority sisters are victims of these cancers. Lori Moll, on the right, died from complications a year after graduation. Ang Ezekiel, in the middle, is in remission.
STOBBS: She's really glad that we're doing it in her honor. She's really glad that her name and her story will be able to help other people.
ROWLAND: The Stobb's goal: raise $120,000, and they're more than halfway there. It's that support, they say, that will keep them peddling.
Rhonda Rowland, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Before they put the peddle to the medal, the Stobbs family is getting ready to talk with us. And they're joining us now from Anicortus, Washington.
Good morning to Martha, Dick, Lili and Katherine.
Hello, Stobbs, how soon do we catch you before you are taking off?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are talking off right after this, in a couple of minutes, a couple of minutes. Up a hill, off we go. KAGAN: We will not keep you too long. Lili, I want to start with you. As we saw in the piece that Rhonda did, you're the original inspiration for this, or getting your family inspired, and you mentioned two sorority sisters. It's nice that they touched your heart. But to take it to this level, what is about these women that really inspires you this summer?
L. STOBBS: They're just two amazing women. I mean, they offer so much to society. Lori had wonderful potential, and we just felt like we needed to do something for her and for Ann and show their strength, you know, to everybody else in the rest of the world.
KAGAN: Go ahead, I'm sorry, with a satellite delay, sorry to cut you off.
L. STOBBS: That's OK. Just do for them what we can.
KAGAN: Dick and Martha. Let me bring you in here, and sister, Katherine. That's nice for Lili to be inspired. But how did this whole family get going on this project?
DICK STOBBS, FATHER: Once she came up with the idea of doing this for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, we all got behind it, and we're a very close family, and this just gave us a reason for doing something together, and we're excited about doing it, and it has a real purpose, and that's the good part about it.
KAGAN: Marta, tell us the route again. It looks like you're taking kind of the northern, upper part of the United States.
MARTHA STOBBS, MOTHER: We are. We're staying close to the Canadian boarder, out of the heat of our hometown of Atlanta.
I'm sorry.
KAGAN: I can appreciate that the heat of Atlanta, yes.
M. STOBBS: Yes. Yes. And going through the Cascades and through Glacier National Park and across Montana and North Dakota, across Lake Michigan. We get a four hour break from peddling on the ferry, through Michigan. We take a little bite out of Canada, on the north side of Lake Erie into Niagara Falls, across New York State on the Erie Canal, nice and flat, we're looking forward to that, over the Berkshires and into Boston, in September.
KAGAN: Katherine, how has your family trained for this. What kind of shape do you think everybody's in? And what's going to be the toughest part. Your mom's seems to have the easy part scoped out, but what's going to be the toughest part.
KATHERINE STOBBS, SISTER: Unfortunately, the toughest part meets us in about two days, so we don't get a lot of time to ease into the trip. But we have been training. We've been training pretty hard for about three months now at home, and we got our panyas (ph) and even starting putting bricks in our panyas (ph) in the last week or two before we came out here. So I think we're set. We were putting a lot of miles on bike before we came out here. We were in pretty decent shape to start with. So we're ready. Unfortunately, the hardest part of the trip hits us right out from the starting gate.
KAGAN: Lili, as we heard, you're expecting to raise over $100,000, or at least hoping to, and you've put up a Web site, where folks can follow your trip across America. Why don't you tell us what Web site is.
L. STOBBS: It's www.questforacure.info, and we're actually trying to raise over a $120,000.
KAGAN: Very good.
Well, we'll wish you well. As you said, the trip awaits, we were the last thing on your to do list before you head off on your bit adventure.
Stobbs family, good luck. And why don't you check in along the way as you make your away across America. I bet you are going to be meeting some very interesting folks and having some great adventures..
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We'll get back to you.
KAGAN: Thank you. Bye-bye.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Stobbs family heading across America to raise money for leukemia research.
D. STOBBS: Thank you. Thank you.
KAGAN: And they're on their way.
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