George Cobb can still hear the voices, the stories from strangers that turned his idea of a bike ride to raise money for the patients of Arkansas Children’s Hospital into a mission. The first tour in July of 2005 took Cobb through dozens of towns where he heard hundreds of stories about friends or loved ones whose children had been treated at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Cobb trained rigorously for months for the 14-day, 1,100-mile bicycle tour around Arkansas. Physically he was ready but the tour took him by surprise emotionally.
“I still go back to the day that a grandfather told me the story about his grandbaby and it just melted my heart,” says Cobb. “I remember riding away from the small gas station; I could feel tears rolling down my face.” That’s when Cobb knew this bike ride would not be the one-time event he imagined.
This year on June 28, Cobb rides again on a shorter but more intense course. His River 2 River journey begins at 5 a.m. where the Arkansas River borders Oklahoma, and in a mere 24 hours, traverses the state to where the Arkansas River meets the Mississippi River in West Memphis on the Tennessee border. Along with narrowing the route, Cobb’s intent to raise funds for Arkansas Children’s Hospital has also become more focused. Proceeds from River 2 River will benefit patients in the hospital’s Audiology department.
“This ride will be one of endurance,” says Cobb. Holding at a speed of only 15 miles per hour, Cobb will pace himself to maintain his stamina to the eastern border. Though a seasoned rider, Cobb will have to draw on something greater than physical training in the wee hours of the morning just before he reaches the finish line. That something greater is his personal experience with hearing loss.
Cobb is among the 16 million baby boomers affected by hearing loss; he is deaf in one ear and has severe hearing loss in the other and he recently underwent canalplasty, a procedure to remove growing bone that was obstructing his ear canal. He began losing his hearing when he was five years old and can certainly relate to children with hearing loss.
“It was hard growing up with a hearing aid on. You flip upside down on the monkey bars and you don’t realize your hearing aid is gone until later when you’re sitting in class.”
Today’s technology makes life a little easier for children with hearing loss than it was for Cobb some 40 years ago. Even so, Cobb wants to help young patients have a better chance at hearing by offering financial support and being a mentor.
“When I saw kids coming out of the hearing booth and watched how our audiologists and speech pathologists interact with them, I knew this had to be the focus of this year’s ride,” he says. “After the first ride, I felt like my work wasn’t done … You want one thing in your life to make a difference. I want to do something nice for those little guys.”
A fleet of supporters are expected to join Cobb for shorter legs of the ride. Many others who can’t ride are lending support, which includes national brand endorsements from Energizer and Unitron. Cobb was particularly thrilled by the handwritten note wishing him well and a signed photograph from former “Brady Bunch” mom, actress Florence Henderson.
“There is almost nothing that hearing loss can prevent you from doing these days,” Cobb says. “Swimming, sweating and any kind of activity you can imagine is no longer an obstacle for people who have a hearing aid.”
With this can-do attitude, Cobb is already planning to one day make a trans-American journey – all for the sake of the kids whose shoes he once filled.
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