Alberta man bikes from Edmonton to Regina to raise money for veterans

After nine days of pedalling, Rob Nederlof completed his over 1100-kilometre bike ride outside the Royal Canadian Legion in Regina on Monday.

This is the fourth year Nederlof has taken on the feat, and he’s doing it to raise money for veterans.

“I just biked from Edmonton to Regina … to raise awareness and funds for the PTSD support dog program through Wounded Warriors,” said Nederlof.

“It’s basically a program to help people with mental health issues that cannot cope and need something throughout the day.

“The support dogs are a tool that they can use and be a friend with to get them through the days that they are having rough times. They can get them out of situations when they start to feel the stress of whatever is triggering them,”Nederlof said.

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In four years Nederlof has raised over $94,000 for the organization.

“It’s a really good organization. It goes throughout Canada. It’s not only for military. It’s for first responders such as police, firefighters, volunteer fire fighters, volunteer paramedics, paramedics,” he said.

Nederlof said he rode 160 kms on the first day of his journey, which took around six hours.

“Typically, you’re looking at about four to six hours of biking a day. Most of my time was on the shoulders of the highways,” he said.

Nederlof said he got the idea to start his “Prairie Thousand” while out on a bike ride in 2020. He said a man saw him out on the road and asked if he was cycling for a specific cause.

“As I was cycling to my destination, I started thinking about it. Like I could do this for something. And I can’t just do it for a short stint like 100 kilometres; it has to be a bigger number. So, I thought 1000 kilometres would be a bigger number. With my wife Marina, we were brainstorming, and we just decided to call it the Prairie Thousand,” said Nederlof.

Wounded Warriors Canada was created by war artist Silvia Pecota and features real life people. (Kaleb Sebastian / 980 CJME)

Waiting for him on the steps of the Royal Canadian Legion building was Philip Ralph, the director of health services for Wounded Warriors Canada.

“Wounded Warriors Canada would not exist without wonderful people like this. Our funding, the charitable side, the foundation side of our work, is completely funded by the kind-hearted Canadians like this,” said Ralph.

Ralph presented Nederlof with a gift for his efforts in raising money for the organization.

“We presented him with the Wounded Warriors Canada print. It was commissioned and done by the war artist Silvia Pecota. It features people that have served throughout Afghanistan and various first responders from across the country as well,” said Ralph.

Nederlof said he hopes to continue raising money for Wounded Warriors.

“We’re not sure about next year yet,” said Nederlof. “But if we don’t do it next year we’ll pick definitely pick it up the year after.”

Read more

• Regina to waive cemetery burial fees for veterans starting on D-Day anniversary
• Ottawa provides $6.7 million for Nova Scotia organizations helping homeless veterans
• A 100-year-old Canadian D-Day veteran on remembrance, peace and the threat of war