34 states in 21 days. Miracle Riders to leave Columbus on ‘Pony Express’ journey

Scott Ressmeyer and the Miracle Riders are set to roar out of Columbus on a Pony Express-themed motorcycle ride across the country to raise awareness and money for the nursing program at Columbus State University.

They are scheduled to depart Friday after a ceremony at 9:30 a.m. outside CSU’s Frank D. Brown Hall at the corner of Broadway and 12th Street in downtown Columbus. The public is encouraged to cheer them on as they ride off with an escort from the Columbus Police Department’s motorcycle unit.

Ressmeyer, founder of the Miracle Ride, told the Ledger-Enquirer the Pony Express idea came from a conversation he had with fellow Miracle Rider Brian Brock.

“I guess every boy dreams of being a cowboy, “ Ressmeyer said, “and now we have iron horses instead of real horses. So it kind of led into, ‘Well, I wonder what it was like to ride as a Pony Express rider.’”

Thirteen riders will join Ressmeyer on the trip 21-day trip to 34 states. They will travel nearly 9,500 miles round-trip as they deliver cards and letters with personal greetings from people in the Chattahoochee Valley to people across the country. Riders not participating in the full ride will deliver personalized greetings to several people in Georgia. They are scheduled to return the evening of May 23 for a celebration and concert on Broadway in downtown Columbus.

Jason McKenzie, owner of Ride on Bikes in Columbus, is among the rookie riders on this year’s trip — motivated to join after his daughter was born premature last year.

“We had a problem in one of our checkups, and we got rushed to the hospital,” McKenzie told the Ledger-Enquirer. “And while I was walking around the fourth floor of Piedmont, in a very scary situation, trying to keep my wits about me to make sure I’m keeping my wife strong and being strong for her, I’m seeing pictures of Scott and the Miracle Riders on the wall and realizing that the NICU that we are most likely going to have to use tonight was provided by the Miracle Riders.

“And, at that point, my wife and I made the decision that if he (Ressmeyer) would allow me to go, I was going to go to try to give my heart back to what he did for our family.”

The Miracle Riders received more than 40 submissions from people with Chattahoochee Valley connections who wanted to send a letter or card. Columbus resident Page Chen is among those selected.

“Our family, we’ve been a part of, certainly, Children’s Miracle Network and most definitely Scott and the riders for over a decade, ever since he’s been riding,” Chen told the Ledger-Enquirer.

Chen said her brother Craig Chaddock had just started to participate in events and fundraising with the Miracle Riders when, in February 2018, he died from a major heart attack. Before his death, Chaddock also had started a friendly competition with Ressmeyer about who could make the best brisket at an annual Christmas party.

“When we lost my brother, seven years ago this past February, Scott and the riders were really there for us and for our family,” she said, “Literally, all the riders showed up in our front yard for my brother’s funeral.”

The Miracle Riders dedicated the 2018 ride to Chaddock and in 2019 presented $100,000 to Piedmont Columbus Regional for a neonatal transport incubator that was named in memory of Chaddock.

Chen’s postcard is going to her brother’s best friend Mike Wheeler in Huntington Beach, California. Wheeler and her brother competed in national barbecue competitions together. Chen said these experiences probably gave her brother the ambition to go head-to-head with Ressmeyer in cooking brisket.

“It’s a very full-circle moment for them to bring a postcard to Mike,” she said. “It feels like they’re riding in my brother’s honor.”

The Miracle Riders will make their first stop in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where they will deliver a letter to Heidi Eddings, whose daughter is Columbus State Univesity president Stuart Rayfield.

Rayfield told the Ledger-Enquirer, when she learned of the Pony Express theme and the Miracle Riders intention to deliver the letters by hand, she wanted to write a letter to her mother.

“I wrote the letter sitting in this office and just telling her how thankful I am that she is my mom,” Rayfield said, “and what a great job she has done as my mom, because I don’t get to see her enough, and I don’t get to say that enough to her. And so, to be able to write it down in this way was really meaningful to me.”

Rayfield said she will drive in a car to Tuscaloosa Friday morning to be with her when the Miracle Riders arrive.

“Keep in mind I rode with them for the last hour and a half of their trip last year,” she said, “but I had never ridden a motorcycle before because my mom forbid me to ride a motorcycle. So this is going to be fun to watch her see a gang of motorcycle riders show up at her front door.”

The Miracle Riders have supported the CSU nursing program since 2021. To date, they have raised $600,000 through three rides toward a $1 million goal.

They receive donations from the local community but also from people they encounter on their trips throughout the United States. Donations can be made at RideForMiracles.com.

Rayfield said the money provides state-of-the-art equipment and simulators CSU nursing students use in labs.

“It is critical for them to have these mannequins, if you will, that are very lifelike, to be able to practice on and to get their techniques right so that by the time we send them into a hospital for their clinical placements, they’ve had some real experience on as like a human as possible,“ she said.

Rayfield said the affiliation between the Miracle Riders and CSU’s nursing program makes perfect sense.

“It might seem like an unlikely coupling,” she said, “but, gosh, it’s just one of the greatest things that we have going on at Columbus State.”

This story was originally published May 1, 2025 at 10:06 AM.