From staff reports

NORMAN -- Uwe von Schamann, director of development for a Norman rehabilitation hospital, is beginning of a major fund drive to raise $500,000 to build a summer camp for children with developmental disabilities in Norman. The fund raiser will bring the former NFL placekicker cycling through Altus and Hollis.

The McCarty Center is Oklahoma's center of excellence in the care and treatment of children with developmental disabilities from birth to 21 years old. This rehab hospital will see, on average, kids from 70 of Oklahoma's 77 counties each year.

"There are no summer camps in Oklahoma that have been designed and built specifically for children with developmental disabilities," von Schamann said. "We have plans to build a camp on the north shore of a small lake located on our 80-acre hospital campus in Norman."

The fundraising event to culminate this fund drive is called Criss Cross Oklahoma, a charity bicycle event. Von Schamann plans to cross Oklahoma on a bicycle. The 1,550-mile trek will be made in four legs and will take about 30 days to complete. During the trip, von Schamann plans to make fundraising stops along the way to talk to community groups about the McCarty Center and the summer camp project, including his stops in Lawton, Altus and Hollis.

The rides will begin Oct. 3 and end Nov. 4

For $50 per rider, or $80 for a family, riders can criss-cross Oklahoma with von Schamann. The riders would join von Schamann anywhere along the route, ride for as long as they want and drop out when they're ready.