For Dr. Katherine Jeter, age is just a number. An experienced cyclist and fundraiser, the soon to be 80-year-old grandmother is embarking on a remarkable cycling adventure.
This fall, Katherine will ride 444 miles along the Natchez Trace, from Nashville, Tennessee to Natchez, Mississippi to raise money for globalbike, inc., a nonprofit connecting Tanzanian women to vital resources through bicycles.
A breast-cancer survivor and the grandmother of four and great grandmother of one, Jeter will undertake this ride to help women around the world achieve health, happiness and success. This isn’t the first time she and her bike have fundraised for important causes. To mark her 70th birthday, she biked 70 miles to raise $70,000 dollars for her two favorite local charities. Three years later, in 2011, she cycled across country with WomanTours, using the feat to raise more than $200,000 for specialty nursing scholarships.
For her 75th birthday, Katherine summited Mt. Kilimanjaro. It was there she got the name, "Bibi" from her mountain guides. Bibi means grandmother in Swahili. While in Tanzania she also saw how two wheels can make a world of difference. Her admiration for the strong women of Tanzania and the strides globalbike has already made there with the provision of bike cooperatives compelled her to select globalbike as the beneficiary of her 80th birthday fundraising.
For this campaign, nicknamed Bibi’s Birthday Bike Ride, Jeter says that "to be 80 and to still be able to do stuff — lift babies, carry my suitcases, and ride bicycles long distances— is a wonderful thing "
After training for 6 months, Jeter and her team of 18 close friends plan to set out on October 17 from Nashville, Tennessee to ride the Natchez Trace, a 444-mile recreational road and scenic parkway that goes through three states. She will end her ride in Natchez, Mississippi.
Jeter hopes to "encourage women to be strong, think big and make a difference," adding, "I hope to encourage young women that age is not an obstacle to a healthy life."
