Axel and Sebastian Hicks set out to pedal more than 2,000 miles on a cross country bike ride with their dad, while raising money for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Miami.
Axel and Sebastian Hicks are twin brothers from South Florida, rising seniors at Ransom Everglades and now -- avid bikers?
They set out to pedal more than 2,000 miles on a cross country bike ride with their dad, while raising money for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Miami, an organization the Hicks brothers have volunteered with since their sophomore year.
NBC 6 anchor Roxanne Vargas spoke to the brothers Wednesday about this incredible trek.
Roxy: Over 2,000 miles coast to coast, how did this idea even start?
Axel and Sebastian: We kinda had our whole junior year derailed by this pandemic. We missed our prom and we missed half our lacrosse season, and we were looking down at a summer of sitting in our room and doing nothing. So, we kinda decided that we didn’t want to let COVID win, but biking across the country has been a dream of our dad’s for years and years.
We’ve been looking for a way to help Big Brother, Big Sisters out since we couldn’t continue our club during coronavirus, and we thought this would be a great opportunity to do so.
Roxy: Let’s talk more about that, you guys did ask for donations and received quite the amount and donated that to Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Where did this love and pledge for this awesome organization here in our community come from?
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Axel and Sebastian: Big Brothers, Big Sisters is an organization that we know works, because my brother and I have been volunteers there since our sophomore year, so we’re coming up on our third year there as "Bigs" ourselves. We’ve seen first hand the positive impact the organization has on kids and so we thought there was no better organization we could pledge our trip to than Big Brother, Big Sisters.
Roxy: How much money did you donate?
Axel and Sebastian: It was $33, 700 in total.
Roxy: Amazing! Let’s look at the miles here -- 2,565 miles -- over how many days did the trip take you?
Axel and Sebastian: 34 days.
Roxy: What was that like? Where did you start your trip and how was your journey?
Axel and Sebastian: We started in Imperial Beach in San Diego, California and we’d almost never biked before. We agreed to and started planning this trip before we even had bikes.
Roxy: Hold on a second! You guys had never biked before, and you just biked 2,565 miles from San Diego to Jacksonville, Florida, and you didn’t even have the bikes when you started this?
Axel and Sebastian: No, that’s what made the trip so interesting and much harder. I think just because the first half of the trip, we were really just figuring out how to bike and getting comfortable with the clip on pedals and the seats, which made it much harder but very fun.
Roxy: What an adventure and what a bonding experience, who came on this journey with you?
Axel and Sebastian: It was us and our dad.
Roxy: I’m sure you get this question a lot…who’s older?
Axel and Sebastian: (Sebastian) by one minute, so Axel is (the) little brother.
Roxy: So Sebastian, you’re older by one minute, Axel is the little brother, and just to throw another surprise in, you are actually triplets! Your sister is the eldest by how long?
Axel and Sebastian: A minute.
Roxy: I’m sure you are expert bikers now, maybe not when you started this, but you certainly are now!
