In the photo, from left, are Kelsea Freeman, Romano Scaturro, Council Member Terence Pratt, Mayor Diane Joens, and Angelina Scaturro, front.
Romano Scaturro is the founder of FRAANK and has been
cyclotouring for over 20 years and more than 30,000 miles. Since 1987 he and his wife Patrice have owned
and operated a small Italian style family restaurant in Cornville, Arizona
while simultaneously raising their four
children. Prior to that Romano earned a Bachelor's degree in Business
Administration from San Jose State University. In 1987 he began competing in
Ironman distance triathlons, a passion that would endure for 16 more
years. In 1989, shortly after the death
of his father, he successfully attempted his first transcontinental bike tour
by riding from Flagstaff, AZ to Hartford, CT in 6 weeks. Since then he has
crossed the continent on four other occasions and bike traveled in most of the
50 states and several foreign countries.
Besides riding his bike, Romano also loves to run, hike, white water
raft, travel, write, study history, and spend time with his family. At the
April 2 City Council meeting Romano gave a presentation to the City Council and
public about his non-profit, fraank.org and his 50 @ 50 project. The
organization is assisting Kelsea Freeman and Dakota Nash.
50@50: A Human Powered Journey
On April 18, 2012 in Juneau, Alaska FRAANK founder Romano
Scaturro, at the ripe age of 50, set out on the first ever attempt to travel to
all 50 US state capitals using only human powered means of transport and
without any support. From the Alaskan capital the journey began with a 5 day,
65 mile paddle in a sea kayak through Alaska’s Inner Passage to Skagway, AK.
From there he began the bike stage of his trek covering over 15,000 miles in
less than 7 months to the remaining 48 land based capitals, arriving in to his
home state capital of Phoenix, AZ on Nov. 23.
Along the way Romano met with numerous state governors,
legislators and community activists in his attempt to raise awareness and funds
for this years cause; the epidemic of childhood obesity in the US. Nearly 1 in
3 children in America today are considered overweight or obese due primarily to
poor diet and lack of exercise. Romano and the FRAANK organization are
dedicated to reversing this disturbing trend as well as improving the lives of
local children and their families suffering from debilitating illnesses. Thus
50@50 has set a goal to raise $50,000 ($1000 per state) of which 100% goes to
this year's beneficiaries, Kelsea Freeman and Dakota Nash, http://www.fraank.org/beneficiaries.html.
Please click on http://www.fraank.org/Help.html
if would like to make a tax deductible donation.
On April 22, 2013, Romano plans to resume the journey
from Phoenix with the goal of reaching the 50th and final capital: Honolulu,
Hawaii. After biking from Phoenix to Monterey Bay CA, he will board 'Little
Star', a 19' specially constructed and fitted ocean rowing vessel, in an
attempt to row over 2,500 miles to his final Mid-Pacific destination. To follow
Romano along this 2nd phase of the 50@50 journey click on http://www.sailblogs.com/member/rosrow/.
