FARMINGTON – Four NorthStar emergency medical service bicyclists are doing well on their 600-mile trek from New York City to Roanoke, Va., this week despite having their support vehicle damaged and burglarized, Blaine Rackliff said Thursday.

The National EMS Memorial Bike Ride is being held this week to honor emergency medical workers who have died in the line of duty.

While on an overnight stop in Annapolis, Md., someone smashed the passenger window in the NorthStar SUV and stole a GPS unit and a cell phone, said Rackliff, who’s participating in the ride. Another support vehicle from Blacksburg, Va., was also broken into and lost two GPS units and a camera. The Virginia vehicle had been damaged the night before the break-in when it was struck by a drunken driver, he said. No one was injured in that incident.

The break-in made several local news reports and can be seen on NorthStar EMS team leader Carl Blondell’s blog at http://northstar-2008-emsmembikeride.blogspot.com/.

The publicity has brought in several donations to help fix the vehicle, Rackliff said, although a Washington business fixed the vehicles at no charge so they could continue on their way.

“It was a quick smash and grab,” Rackliff said. The investigating detective has some leads and told the EMS bikers that the area has recently had a string of vehicle burglaries with GPS systems taken.

The NorthStar riders – Blondell, Rackliff, Ben Guild and Rod Koehn – are riding in memory of paramedic Allan Parsons of Wilton. They stopped in Washington on Tuesday to talk with U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, about legislation that would provide death benefits for families of hospital and volunteer EMS workers.

Thursday night the team arrived in Lexington, Va., and will go on to Roanoke on Friday where they will be met by Parsons’ family, he said. Parsons’ daughter, Amy, has also posted a message on Blondell’s blog, he added.

An EMS memorial service will be held with 73 inductees on Saturday.

There are 85 registered riders making the trek from 23 states and two from Ireland this year, he said.