MILTON — As he nears the end of his 3,000-mile cross-country bicycle trip on Saturday, Justin Jarrett is inviting those who knew his best friend, Aaron Klinger, to join in the last leg of the journey.
The long trip fulfills a promise the two young men made to one another two years ago.
Jarrett’s ride is a tribute to Klinger, who died in a traffic accident Jan. 18 in Cumberland County. He was 22. The two had grown up together and were best friends. They had planned to ride across the nation together.
“It was supposed to be one last adventure together — one last test before we entered the real world,” Jarrett said last spring. The two friends had planned to move to the West Coast, where Jarrett wanted to make his mark as a filmmaker and Klinger would have worked as a sports and fitness specialist at a YMCA.
Riders will leave the Perkins restaurant in State College at 8 a.m. Saturday, heading for the Raymond B. Winter State Park, Route 192 in western Union County. They expect to arrive there about 12:20 p.m. They will leave there and head for the Perkins in Lewisburg, arriving about 2:20. The final push will take them to Milton Area Senior High School between 3:30 and 4.
“We’d like to get as many people from the community as possible to meet at Milton high school for the big finish to help celebrate Aaron’s life,” Jarrett said by telephone from a lunch break near Pittsburgh on Tuesday. Jarrett and Kylar Krebs, the third member of the longtime friendship, left the West Coast on Aug. 17, accompanied by a film crew.
They started traveling with a motor home as their overnight accommodations, but it broke down in New Mexico.
“We had to sell it,” Jarrett said. “We got $500 and four T-shirts.”
“It’s been absolutely incredible,” he said. “We’ve met a lot of really interesting and wonderful people. Now, we’re all anxious to get home.”
After Klinger’s death, his family and friends established the Aaron M. Klinger Memorial Scholarship at Milton High, where he had been an honor student and standout athlete. The scholarship would honor a student who excelled in academics and athletics and shared Klinger’s passion for exercise science.
In order for the scholarship to remain viable, however, enough money must be gathered for it to be self-sustaining. From that need rose Jarrett’s plan for a documentary film. Not only does the film, named “For Aaron: The Documentary,” document the cross-country journey, it includes interviews and testimonials by Klinger’s family and friends as well as scenes of the lives of Klinger and Jarrett as they grew up.
Jarrett and his friends raised more than $20,000 to support the trip and the making of the film, including sales of wrist bands and T-shirts, a charity basketball tournament and donations from the community.
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Memorial bike ride is nearing an end
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