Erika Amburgey McLemore is in the Navy now. In 2000, she led JROTC drills at King George High School. ROBERT A. MARTIN/THE FREE LANCE-STAR Visit the Photo Place

BIKING, BUILDING IS NEXT HURDLE

King George High School graduate is sailing the seas with the Navy and planning a cross-country bike ride to build houses for the needy

Date published: 5/24/2009

BY CATHY DYSON

When Erika McLemore makes up her mind to do something, watch out.

"She'll find a way to do it, whether it's running a marathon, learning how to make a quilt or biking across the country and building houses," said Katie Lee, her friend since middle school. "She always goes after things 100 percent."

McLemore, whose maiden name is Amburgey, grew up in King George County, the daughter of the late Guy and Betty Amburgey, both of whom retired from the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren.

McLemore served in the Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps at King George High School, then graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2006.

The 24-year-old tends to accomplish whatever she sets her mind to, her friend said, even if she knows absolutely nothing about it.

Take the marathon and making a quilt. McLemore thought it would be cool to run 26 miles, and planned to train, but when the day of the Country Music Marathon in Nashville dawned, she'd barely done any extra running. (She's no couch potato; she regularly runs about 25 miles a week.)

She and her husband, Tim, finished the marathon, but didn't set any records.

McLemore took the same approach when she decided to make a quilt for Lee's birthday. McLemore knew nothing about sewing, but bought a machine and figured out how to arrange images of the Care Bears that Lee loves so much.

"That's just who she is," Lee said.

McLemore's next feat will be to bike 1,268 miles, from Michigan to Florida, during the heat of summer. As part of the Fuller Center for Housing's Bicycle Adventure 2009, she'll stop eight times along the way to help build houses.

So what if she just started biking last month and knows little about construction?

McLemore heard about the group, which focuses on affordable housing and offering riders a spiritual journey, and thought it sounded cool.

"I thought it combined the best of both worlds: vacationing and doing something to help other people," she said.

Her JROTC teacher at King George High isn't surprised.

When McLemore led the program before she graduated in 2002, she "brought everybody along," said Cmdr. Fred Duckworth. "Where a lot of teenagers were more self-centered, she was always more focused on other people."

The Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure 2009, in which Erika Amburgey McLemore is participating, hopes to raise $200,000 for affordable housing. To make a donation: ONLINE: fullercenter biketrip.com. Click on "Donations." BY MAIL: Checks can be made to "The Fuller Center" and mailed to: The Fuller Center for Housing, Attn: Bike Adventure, 701 S. Martin Luther King Blvd., Americus, Ga. 31719. Erika Amburgey McLemore was helping bring about peace between once-warring countries when she was just a teenager. In 2000, McLemore, then 16 and a junior at King George High School, was one of eight students picked to represent America in the Partners in Peace program. The group was paired with eight teens from Japan. The teens spent three weeks together in the United States and Japan, learning about each other's differences and similarities. The program was started by a Japanese fighter pilot who dropped bombs on American ships during World War II. When his plane crashed near Okinawa, Americans rescued him, and the pilot never forgot them. He developed the youth exchange so students would learn that "the seas that divide us, unite us."

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Date published: 5/24/2009