Cyclist attempts 625-mile ride for Sebago Lakes Fuller Center for Housing

By Ed Pierce

It’s hard to keep Bill Turner down for very long and despite experiencing pain in his knee, he’s launching a new long-distance cycling adventure to raise money for his favorite charitable organization next week.

Local cyclist Bill Turner will ride in the Full Bike Adventure
'Winter Western' trip covering 625 miles from the California
coast to Tucson, Arizona from March 2 to March 15 while
raising money for the Sebago Lakes Region Fuller Center
for Housing. COURTESY PHOTO

Turner, one of the founders of the Sebago Lakes Region Fuller Center for Housing, stayed close to home last year after shoulder surgery and only cycled in Maine, but still managed to bring in a sizeable haul of pledges for the Sebago Lakes Region Fuller Center chapter while only taking shorter rides.

But 2026 is different. Turner’s Fuller Center friend, Ginny Hughes challenged him to ride for two weeks with The Fuller Bike Adventure “Winter Western” trip covering 625 miles from the California coast to Tucson, Arizona from March 2 to March 15.

“The Physical Therapy I have been doing for my right knee has helped however it still talks to me when going down the stairs, so I will be riding my Fugi Mountain bike with a set of road tires.” Turner said. “For this ride 100 percent of the funds I raise will be split equally between the local Silver Valley Fuller Center for Housing chapter in Kellogg, Idaho and the Sebago Lakes Region Fuller Center for Housing in Maine.

He said both chapters focus on serving elderly residents, veterans, and the handicapped, by repairing homes to keep people safe while remaining in their homes. The Fuller Center for Housing raises funds through cyclists who commit to riding long distances and raising funds.

“This year my goal for the ride is $10,350,” Turner said. “As of Feb. 24, we are at $2,725.” Turner and his wife Lily will match $2,500.00 of donations during the month of March, and he says March is a month that he can win bonus dollars for the donations that are made, or the amount of funds that he raises in a given week and donations can be made through Oct. 1, 2026.

Preparing to undertake yet another long cycling adventure is certainly a testament to Turner’s determination.

In 2021, he underwent a prostatectomy, a surgical procedure to remove his prostate gland, and is now living cancer free. A surgery in 2022 replaced his right shoulder and he went through another operation to have his left shoulder replaced in 2024.

As an avid cyclist, Bill Turner rode for many years in the “Trek across Maine” with his children on behalf of the American Lung Association.

“At some point in 2017, I decided to see if I could bike across the country,” Turner said. “I began to look for trips and came across the Fuller Center Bike Adventure, and so I signed up for a trip from San Francisco to Santa Fe to see how my body would react. I am not used to asking people for money, but for such as good cause as the Fuller Center Bike Adventure, it seemed like the right thing to do.”

He chose to ride across the country with the Bike Adventure in 2018 and signed up to ride from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine. Turner managed to ride the entire distance, and he also learned more about the national Fuller Center for Housing, a 501(c3) non-profit organization based out of Americus, Georgia. Its mission is to “promote collaborative and innovative partnerships with individuals and organizations in an unrelenting quest to provide adequate shelter for all people in need worldwide.”

After seeing first-hand the work done to help communities by the Fuller Center for housing, Turner thought that his church, Faith Lutheran Church in Windham, could become involved in a project locally to assist keeping elderly homeowners and veterans in the Lakes Region safely in their homes.

Together with Windham resident Lorraine Glowczak, Turner developed a PowerPoint presentation and met with churches around Windham pitching them about the proposal. Six churches came on board and founded the Sebago Lakes Region Fuller Center for Housing with Faith Lutheran Church, the Unity Church for Spiritual Growth, the North Windham Union Church, Windham Hill United Church of Christ, Raymond Village Church and Saint Joseph’s College of Maine joining to serve the towns of Windham, Raymond and Standish.

At the forefront of fundraising for the Sebago Lakes Region Fuller Center for Housing, Turner trains year-round and has a fat-tire bike with studded tires that he rides throughout the winter months with his pal, Tucker, a black 40-pound rescue dog that the Turners obtained from the Texas shelter.

“Bicycling has been an important part of my life for staying healthy at this point,” he said. “The community has always helped our local riders accomplish their goals and help others throughout our country,” Turner said. “If your life allows, during these crazy times, donations in any amount are always very much appreciated by us and the folks on the receiving end.”

To make a donation to Turner, visit his fundraising page https://2026.fullercenterbikeadventure.org/btair or send a check donation payable to “The Fuller Center for Housing” with Turner’s name in the memo line and mail them to Attn: Bike Adventure, The Fuller Center for Housing, PO Box 523, Americus, GA 31709.

To learn more about the Sebago Lakes Region Fuller Center for Housing, visit https://sebagofullerhousing.org/ <

Cyclist overcomes disability to complete gravel bike race

By Kaysa Jalbert

Gabby Sinotte was born without her left hand, so when she wanted to learn how to ride a bike like her older brother, her father taped a Styrofoam cup to her bike handlebars where she could place her wrist to steer. She’s come a long way and this past August, Gabby Sinotte traveled from Windham to compete in her first gravel bike race in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, with her fiancée, Brian Duggan, and beat her own record time by 45 minutes.

Born without a left hand, Gabby Sinotte of Windham has 
overcome her disability and completed the 57-mile
SBT GRVL cycling race in Colorado in August.
COURTESY PHOTO  

Sinotte competed in the 57-mile SBT GRVL race, a world-class gravel cycling event held annually in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and was determined to complete the race in four and a half hours, but to her own amazement, she finished in three hours and 45 minutes.

“So much faster than I was anticipating,” said Sinotte. “I was crying before I think I even crossed the finish line because I was just like wow, I can't believe I did that.”

She completed the race, not with a cup taped to her handlebars, but with her own prothesis that she has been developing over the past few years. Sinotte is a prosthetist which allows her to make personalized prosthesis for bike riding.

“It’s been a progression over the course of three years,” Sinotte said. “I started with what kind of looked like a Lego hand that connects right onto the handlebar and it slowly built up my confidence riding. Now I have a kind of ball-and-socket joint that connects on my handlebar which allows me to stand and pedal which I've never done before. It gave me all the confidence to ride bikes at a higher level and I think once I got to that point, I was like ohh, the next step is doing a bike race.”

Sinotte started biking with her fiancée about five years ago following a situation that led to a silver lining. In 2019, when the couple was living in Northern California, they came home to find Duggan’s bike and skis had been stolen from their garage. The money they were able to use from renter’s insurance helped Sinotte purchase her own bike, and she has been riding with Duggan since.

“It was a horrible situation that turned really good,” said Duggan.

Sinotte found a group online that was advertising to build a team of athletes for the SBT GRVL Race. Sinotte says she thought to herself, “this looks fun,” so she signed up and didn’t think much more about it until one day in November, to her surprise, she got an email saying she had been selected on one of the teams.

Duggan also participated in the race.

“It’s an event that sells out and it's a lottery system. I was going either way, either being #1 fan or racing myself but yeah, I got to race,” said Duggan cheerfully.

For the next 10 months, the couple prepared and trained harder than ever before. When they arrived, they were provided with lodging at an adaptive ranch that was made for people with disabilities and has adaptive facilities.

The race took place from Aug. 15 to Aug. 18. The couple traveled the course to familiarize themselves with what was ahead, but also to be able to stop and take in some of the scenery along the route.

“The thing I love about bikes is it's a way to get outside and you can cover so much more ground than if you were walking but also go to way cooler places than if you were just in the car,” says Sinotte.

Gabby said she can get frustrated when biking with Brian because he is “always way faster than me,” but she reminds herself that he is built biologically differently than him, “and he has been cycling for 15 years. In the end, Duggan only beat Sinotte by two minutes.

“I'm blown away by how much she's been able to do on a bike in not very long,” said Duggan. “She's blowing people out of the water.”

Sinotte and Duggan train on their bikes year-round and say their favorite ride in Windham is Swett Road, a dirt road that the two always try to go very fast on. Sinotte plans to continue training and has thoughts of possibly competing in the 2028 Paralympics. <