Sandy Man, 65, Rides Unicycle 3,494 Miles Across U.S. For Hillcrest Scholarships

Kent Griffiths turned 65 on May 2 and celebrated by climbing onto a single oversized electric wheel and pointing it toward the other side of the country. Thirty-five days and 3,494 miles later, the Sandy resident and 1979 Hillcrest High School graduate rolled into Virginia Beach, Virginia, having survived a broken bone, a mountain rescue, and stretches of desert cold enough to split his fingertips years before. He did it all to raise money for scholarships at his old high school.

Griffiths departed from Stinson Beach, California, and finished with a final 65-mile ride into Virginia Beach, according to the Sandy Journal. He rode an electric unicycle weighing about 135 pounds with gear, a machine he nicknamed Rex after both his late cousin and the unicycle's Oryx model name. Along the way, he leaned on the kindness of strangers — homeowners, travelers, friends, motel clerks, convenience store workers and local officials who helped him keep moving, the outlet reports.

A Milestone Birthday Tradition

This wasn't Griffiths' first birthday stunt for a cause. Five years earlier, he marked his 60th birthday in May 2021 by completing 60 helicopter skydives, selling the extra flight seats for $60 each to benefit the same Hillcrest High School Alumni Association scholarship fund, according to background compiled by 1wheel1mission.com. For his 65th birthday, he pledged $1 of his own money for every mile ridden, personally contributing $3,494 toward a broader campaign that ultimately raised about $14,500 for the fund, per the Sandy Journal and the campaign site.

Griffiths has said his motivation traces back to his own uneven path after high school. Despite graduating from Hillcrest with low grades in 1979, opportunities in the military and early jobs helped him succeed, and he wanted to extend that kind of chance to struggling students, according to the Midvale Journal. He is a U.S. Army veteran and former marathoner. His daughter also attended Hillcrest before going on to pursue medical studies, adding a family thread to his commitment to the school's alumni fund.

Crashes, a Broken Bone and a Mountain Rescue

The trip was not without real danger. Griffiths suffered a broken metatarsal after two crashes in Kansas but pressed on despite the injury, per the Sandy Journal's reporting. In Colorado, he attempted a mountain shortcut, ran out of food and water, and had to call for help; he was extricated by Montrose County Search & Rescue, according to the campaign site.

Weather also worked against him. Wind and rain repeatedly cut into the unicycle's typical range, the Sandy Journal reports, even though the wheel could travel more than 100 miles on a charge under typical conditions. High-performance electric unicycles in this class, such as the Leaperkim Veteran Oryx, weigh around 127 pounds without gear, carry a 4,700 Wh battery, and have a tested real-world range of nearly 90 miles per charge, according to ERideHero. Less than a week into the journey, the desert air of California and Nevada split Griffiths' fingertips despite leather gloves, a problem he had underestimated and hadn't packed enough lotion to prevent, per the Midvale Journal.

Strangers, a Stilt-Walking Legend and a Land Advocate

Griffiths' route put him in the path of some memorable fellow travelers. He met a professor walking across Utah to advocate for protecting the state's public lands, and encountered a group of bicyclists who rode 400 miles over six days. He also crossed paths with Joe Bowen of Hazel Green, Kentucky, who set a Guinness World Record in 1980 by walking 3,008 miles across the United States on stilts, from Los Angeles to Kentucky, to raise more than $100,000 for muscular dystrophy research, according to Guinness World Records.

Griffiths also carried personal history along the route, scattering his mother's and father's ashes in Dodge City and handing out nearly 150 stickers promoting the One Wheel, One Mission scholarship campaign as he went. He told the Sandy Journal that face-to-face conversations with the people he met could accomplish more than internet arguments, and that the journey turned out to be more emotionally and mentally stressful than physically difficult.

A Fund That Already Helps Seven Students a Year

The scholarship fund Griffiths rode for is not hypothetical. In 2026, the Hillcrest High School Alumni Association fund supported seven graduating seniors with scholarships for college and trade schools, according to the campaign site. Griffiths has written that the campaign's real payoff will be measured in future college and trade school graduates, not in the miles logged or dollars raised.

He said the trip was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity he wanted to use to help others, and he became more humble because of it, per the Sandy Journal. Griffiths had said before the ride that he intended to finish barring illness or significant injury — and despite the broken bone and the Colorado rescue, he kept that promise, reportedly crying before he completed the final leg into Virginia Beach.