Just off their first-year finals, two UConn medical students are preparing to continue the summertime cross-country bicycle tour that is now a 12-year school tradition.

Sonali Rodrigues and Brett Lehner make up the 2017 Coast to Coast for a Cause team. This year’s cause is “An Apple a Day,” a public health project to improve access to and education around nutrition in Connecticut schools.

“The money that we’re raising goes toward planting fruit trees on campuses of high schools and other public places,” Lehner says. “The idea is that those trees themselves and the fruit from them are about education and access to healthy fruit, available to anyone who comes upon it when it’s ripe.”

Lehner, who grew up in Bethel and completed his undergraduate studies at UConn, committed to the trip in January. Rodrigues, who grew up in Shelton and graduated from Northeastern University, joined on a few months later. Neither claims to be an experienced cyclist.

“When I first heard about the trip, I figured the people who would be doing it this year would be people who were really experienced, and I didn’t want to hold anyone back,” Rodrigues says. “But I think Brett and I are kind of at the same level.”

The two plan to follow a path similar to last year’s ride, mostly along the bicycle route known as the Northern Tier. It starts in Anacortes, Washington, and continues through the northern border states. They’ll fly to Seattle, which is about 80 miles south of Anacortes, June 9 and start pedaling east the next day.

“I think a lot of those northern states, I don’t think I ever would have been to in my life, so I feel like there will be a lot of new experiences in those places,” Rodrigues says. “Also just being outside for that long; we’ve been inside studying for most of the year so it’ll be just really nice. This is really going to be a lot of outdoors time but that’s what I’m looking forward to the most. And one part of the trip that looks really cool is right along Lake Erie. We’re biking along the whole side of it.”

They plan to cover the 3,500-mile journey in about eight weeks. Lehner has a friend from his undergrad days who will join them for the first few weeks.

“I’m looking forward to spending time outside, being able to slow down, not knowing what you’re going to be doing in each state, not knowing what you’re going to be coming across,” Lehner says. “Overall the trip is a good way to get to know America a little more, get to know the culture, see a lot of places, and meet a lot of interesting people.”

Along the way, the riders plan to keep a blog for remote observers to track their progress: coast2coastforacause2017.wordpress.com. When they return to Connecticut they plan to keep the tradition of inviting friends, family and supporters to join them for the last leg of the trip, a roughly 45-mile ride from UConn Health to the Connecticut coast, where the journey ends with Rodrigues’ and Lehner’s tires in the Atlantic waters of the Long Island Sound.

Earlier in the spring, the students held an auction of goods and experiences, including faculty-student dinners donated by the faculty, and raised around $6,000. They will continue to fundraise through the end of the trip. Those interested in supporting this year’s ride can learn how at bit.ly/17c2cfundraise. That page also includes a video Lehner created about this year’s trip and the public health mission it supports.

Some form of this cross-country cycling tour has taken place each year since 2006, when a pair of UConn medical students pedaled from California to Connecticut to raise money for leukemia research.