Winnipegger hanging up the laces after cycling to support orphaned children in Kenya

Over the past 20 years, Winnipeg’s Arvid Loewen has been going the extra mile for orphaned and abandoned children in Kenya. 350,000 of them to be exact, raising over $12 million in support of Mully Children’s Family (MCF), a street mission in Nairobi, Kenya.

“They went from 835 kids when I pulled them across Canada, to now have 7,000 children in 11 centres with another 25,000 having graduated and become pillars in their community,” said Loewen.

“I’ve always said I have a 51 per cent chance of making my cycling goal, got a 100 per cent chance of making a difference for a dis-advantaged kid so I never shied away from punching above my weight class.”

Loewen still recalls the moment he realized he had found his calling, following his first cross-Canada journey in support of the MCF in 2005, he and his wife Ruth decided to see firsthand what they were supporting.

Upon arriving in Kenya, Loewen met a young girl that would forever change the course of his life.

“The little girl allowed my heart to be moved from that is just a picture of a destitute child, there are millions of them … to this picture just sitting on my lap, that’s a real person, that is what motivated me to change my life,” said Loewen.

In total, Loewen’s calling has seen the grandfather of 11 travel the equivalent of nine trips around the earth, enduring accidents, storms, races he couldn’t finish, races he didn’t want to, but now at the conclusion of his cycling expedition, the 67-year-old wouldn’t change a thing.

“It has been hard, sure it changed our lifestyle and we had to do a lot of things but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.”