By Dan Harty SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — The sound of blaring bagpipes cut through the cold afternoon air on the Syracuse University promenade on Thursday as the Cycle to Syracuse team was given a proper escort after completing their journey.
It was all too fitting that the traditional Scottish music was paired with gray skies and a cold drizzle, a scene that could have been pulled straight from Lockerbie.
The Cycle to Syracuse team is led by bagpipers onto the SU campus. Hear their story on NCC News at 3:42pm. #B3643 pic.twitter.com/AkNYzeYbPY
— Daniel Harty (@danhartycuse) November 1, 2018
As the cyclists approached the crowd that had assembled, collective indecision set in about the appropriate reaction. Eventually the reverent silence turned into applause when the riders began to embrace each other.
It was the emotional culmination to a ride 30 years in the making.
On Dec. 21, 1988, a bomb planted on Pan Am Flight 103 sent the plane crashing down into the small town of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, including 35 Syracuse University students.
This year, five men from Lockerbie set out on a remembrance tour, biking 3,238 miles to remember the lives lost. “Cycle to Syracuse” Founder Colin Dorrance, who was a first responder on the night of the crash, said that covering the amount of miles between Lockerbie and Syracuse served to complete Pan Am 103’s flight home.
“It has been our deepest privilege to span the Atlantic in a symbolic trip that those who boarded Pan Am 103 could not make,” Dorrance said.
The journey to mile 3,238 started early this fall when Scottish children got the team’s five members a head start by biking laps around their respective schools. The second stage saw the core members and people from the community ride from a secondary school in Lockerbie to Edinburgh Castle. Finally, this week, Colin Dorrance and his team made a final 600-mile push from Washington, D.C. to Syracuse.
Thursday, the cyclists completed their trip at a reception held in front of SU’s Lockerbie Memorial. At the ceremony, Member of the Scottish Parliament for Dumfriesshire Oliver Mundell praised the men’s effort.
“At its heart, this [trip] challenges all of us not to do what is easy, but to do all that we can to inspire others and build a positive legacy,” Mundell said.
Mundell also urged those in attendance to look past tragedy and recognize Cycle to Syracuse as a celebration of the bonds between Lockerbie and the university.
“While Cycle to Syracuse was always about remembering, it was also about giving thanks and showing our appreciation for the many relationships that exist today,” Mundell said.
Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud echoed Mundell’s remarks, reflecting on the 35 SU students every year who are chosen to be Remembrance Scholars and the two Lockerbie students who come to study at Syracuse.
“We are not two communities joined only by a common tragedy,” Syverud said. “We are two communities that are joined by respect, gratitude, and a determination that we will do good things together for our young in the future in the memory of all those who were lost.”
As people from both parties exchanged pleasantries, Syverud encouraged the strong continuation of a relationship originally forged in mourning.
“I ask that the people of Lockerbie increasingly regard themselves as part of the Orange family because we certainly regard ourselves as part of yours,” Syverud said.
