News
Biking across country for a moral cause
Scott Wagar
11/19/2013
For Georgia Rose of Willow City and her friend Jenn Krussow of Duluth, Minn., they will be spending the new year traveling across the southern tier of the U.S. on bicycles in hopes of bringing awareness to a disturbing trend in our country and state.
Rose and Krussow will be bicycling from San Diego, Calif. to St. Augustine, Fla., to bring awareness of human trafficking, which is an issue that Rose has had deep concern for over the past decade.
“The United States has more in-slave people than any other country in the world. So, human trafficking has become a problem here,” Rose said. “There are two types of human trafficking, labor and sex trafficking, but about 85 percent of all trafficking is sexual trafficking.”
Rose added that in North Dakota human sexual trafficking is increasing and is reported on almost every week in the state.
“There was double the number of prostitutes arrested for prostitution in the last year,” she said. “So, it is growing pretty fast.”
Rose and Krussow will be trekking over 3,000 miles in seven to eight weeks traveling around 75 miles a day while bringing awareness to the cause human trafficking.
In certain towns, the two bicyclers will have planned events on their platform, while at the same time talking in general about this crime in our nation hoping individuals will get an interest in the issue and make attempts to speak out on human trafficking.
Rose’s interest in stopping human trafficking started over a decade ago.
“It’s kind of a long story. The short version is about 10 to 15 years ago I saw a segment on 60 Minutes and they were talking about human trafficking in Thailand, Cambodia and some of those things overseas, and it just kept getting closer to home from the articles I was seeing,” Rose said.
“Then, when I was in college, I had the chance over a weekend break to go to Minneapolis where they were starting a transitional home of women coming out of this. So, I helped build it over the next couple of years.
“The awesome thing was that as they were having the open house for the new building one of the employees asked me if I wanted to do an internship,” Rose added. “So, I was able to go back a year ago in August and intern for six months.”
With the internship she did, and her interest in bicycling, Rose came up with the idea of trekking about the southern half of the country with Krussow, which she said she is looking forward to.
To prepare for the trip, Rose has been riding the open rode around Willow City and spending time in Duluth with Krussow. With the recent cold snap in the local area, Rose has be riding a stationary bike in a shop on her family’s farm.
“The cold weather has put me inside,” Rose said. “But, I am doing an hour and a half to two hours a day.”
As she is training, Rose is also bringing awareness of human trafficking to the local area. On Dec. 7, at the Crossroad Baptist Church in Minot, there will be an informational meeting on human trafficking. The event will start a 4 p.m.
Individuals, who wish to keep track of Rose and Krussow’s journey, can do so by going to their blog at http://faithinactionblog.org and read about their trip.