Unicyclist's quest for college

by Bruce Farrin
     
     RUMFORD - A young man riding a really big unicycle Thursday on Congress Street got a lot of second glances, as well as comments.
     "They say 'what happened to your other wheel?' or they sing circus music at me. I try to make people smile and I enjoy that," noted Maxwell DeMilner of Peru, who said unicycling is a great way to get attention.
     He is hoping the attention and his love for unicycling will ultimately lead to his goal of raising $2,000 so he can continue with his college education.
     Max should be a fairly common sight around here as he trains for this summer's 750-mile unicycle trip through the six states of New England.
     He will begin his trek on Saturday, May 6 from Mountain Valley High School, where he graduated in 2004. He will make his way to Conway, NH. "I have friends in a few different places, and an aunt in Lowell, MA. The course was kind of a connect the dots to friendly places."
     The journey on secondary roads will take him through the New Hampshire's White Mountains, Vermont's Green Mountains and most of the state, western Massachusetts, nearly the whole length of Connecticut, through Rhode Island, up through eastern Massachusetts, and back into New Hampshire to finish in Rumford.
     This will not be an easy venture, for which Max is hoping for sponsorships and donations. The unicycle he uses has the largest wheel they make, at 36 inches. He expects to complete the trip in three weeks, pedaling 50 miles a day. He said the top speed of the unicycle is 15 miles per hour, but he will average 10-11 mph.
     Max attended Chester College of New England in 2004-05, but could not afford to continue after the first year. He is presently working in the pharmacy at Hannaford's in Rumford.
     The money from this endeavor, after expenses, will go toward college tuition and school supplies in the spring of 2007. He hopes to continue his schooling at the Univ. of Maine at Farmington, where he will major in creative writing and English.
     He said he's been riding a unicycle for four years. It took him only a weekend of practice to learn how to ride it.
     Max calls his unicycle Captain Pasquale. The name is Spanish. Perhaps the name has something to do with his ultimate unicycle continental dream tour - a 4,000-mile tour from the furthest corner of the Atlantic in Eastport to the furthest corner of the Pacific in Tijuana, Mexico.
     He said his original plan was to unicycle from Maine to California, but he said he had to scale it down because he could not afford the supplies it would take.
     Max is hoping to develop a website so that people will be able to track Captain Pasquale's tour.
     "This is a very 'Max' thing to do. It's a great way to get attention, and something I've wanted to do," he said.
     Max can be reached at 562-7735 or maximus_d@graffiti.com.