Wendy’s Franchisee Hits the Road to Raise Funds for Foster Care Adoption

Jul 27, 2016 4:00 PM ET

Ed Anderson strapped on his helmet, jumped on his bike and pedaled right out of Newport News, VA on Wednesday. It was the start of a 4,000 mile journey that will take him from sea to shining sea all in the name of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

In 1992, Wendy’s Founder Dave Thomas started the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. An international nonprofit dedicated solely to increasing the number of adoptions from foster care. The Foundation furnishes grants to private and public adoption agencies through its signature program, Wendy’s Wonderful Kids. The agencies use the grants to hire specially-trained adoption recruiters, called Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiters, who use a child-focused recruitment model. It is the sole mission of these recruiters to find permanent, loving homes for the children who have been in foster care the longest.

Dave Thomas himself was adopted. Anderson felt there was no better way to honor the memory of Dave Thomas than to help raise funds for his Foundation.

The goal of this ride is $1 million and Anderson will be on his bike from now until October 4 helping to make it happen. He has 21 stops along the way and his wife is following behind in an RV, just to be sure everything goes smoothly.

To learn more about Ed’s Tour de Adoption and to make a donation, visit bit.ly/edsadoptiontour.