here are reasons
aplenty for not riding a bicycle across the country -- pedaling up
mountains, saddle sores, getting bugs in your teeth.
But lawyer Erika Rottenberg has one motive that trumps all the
excuses -- her mom.
Rottenberg lost her mother to breast cancer so she's biking
across country to raise money for breast cancer research.
"I love to bicycle and I care deeply about breast cancer
research, so this is an intersection of my two passions," Rottenberg
said.
On Saturday, the general counsel of Creative Labs Inc. in
Milpitas will fly to Seattle, the starting point for her
three-month, 2,400-mile trek that will end in Boston.
She's not riding alone, however. She'll be traveling with a
Minnesota company, Cycle America Corp., which organizes and runs
lengthy bike trips as vacations for bicycle enthusiasts. Rottenberg
said the company is letting her ride in its cross-country trek at
cost because of her charitable effort.
Friends, family, colleagues and even strangers who've learned of
her efforts have contributed more than $30,000, which Rottenberg has
earmarked for the national Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
Some of her friends will even do more than write a check. A
handful of brave bikers -- one of whom is undergoing treatment for
breast cancer -- are meeting Rottenberg along her route to bike for
a day or two. She'll even have some friends along when she
celebrates her 40th birthday on June 26.
Rottenberg's mom died in 1983 while Rottenberg was in college.
Since then, she's worked as a schoolteacher, attended law school and
was a Cooley Godward associate. She left Cooley in 1996 for Creative
Labs, where she's now general counsel and vice president of
strategic development.
Four years ago, she started bicycling and loved it. She taught
school as a way to give back to the community, and now that she's a
company lawyer, she said she's using her bicycling efforts as a way
to give back even more.
Senior Writer Renee Deger's e-mail address is
rdeger@therecorder.com.
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