After training for three months, Fairfax resident Kevin Elwell rode his bicycle 192 miles in the Pan Mass Challenge on Aug. 5 and 6. Elwell, who completed his eighth bike ride across Massachussetts, participates in memory of his father, who died of cancer in 1999. He is this week's People Profile.
Number of years in the community: I’ve lived in Fairfax for approximately six years but grew up in Springfield and went to West Springfield High School. Go Spartans!
Family: Adrienne and I were married on New Years Eve last year, the love of my life. Chesapeake, my 14-year-old Labrador retriever, is slowing down now, but still lives by the motto “it’s all about the food.”
Education: Graduated from VPI in 1980 with a degree in mechanical engineering.
Your first job: Working for Springfield Golf and Country Club as a bus-boy. My first real job was working for Delco Electronics in Kokomo, Ind. as an engineer.
Current job/primary occupation: I’m a proposal manager for an IT Joint Venture in Tysons supporting the National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency.
Activities/interests/hobbies? I’m a long-distance cyclist who raises money to cure cancer, a double-black-diamond skier and a semi-professional photographer.
Favorite local restaurant or place in the community? Tony’s New York Style Pizza, without a doubt the best pie in the entire city, unparalleled.
What are your community concerns? What are some ideas you have on ways to improve your community? Make builders pay for road improvements! It’s obscene what they’re doing by dumping high-density housing into already grid-locked roads.
What is the last book you read, or, the last movie you watched? "Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air" by Francis J. Beckwith and Gregory Koukl. An incredible read that will change your thinking and let "them" be a flat-earth society member. Movies: “Superman Returns” was fun and entertaining.
What brought you here? Working for a dot-com that cratered after a year. It’s nice to be back around family and to have my roots back, so I couldn’t leave again.
What community "hidden treasure" do you think more people should know about? Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority. Our parks are underused and underrated. It’s a shame that people, especially families, don’t get out of the house and see what beauty there is right outside your door.
When you were younger, what did you want to be when you "grew up?" As a young person I thought I’d end up being a Formula-One driver racing cars all over the world and living the jet-set life. Sometimes the best things in life are unanswered prayers.
If you were to take a road trip anywhere right now, where would you go? We’re scheduled to visit the Holy Land in October, so I’m hopeful that the Israelis will prevail and peace will be restored to the region.
Personal goals? To raise $100,000 in the interest of finding a cure for cancer and to bike 15,000 miles to bring awareness to my cause. Read my story at this link: http://www.pmc.org/mypmc/profiles.asp?Section=story&eGiftID=KE0006.