Yesterday was a magnificent day for the Hiawatha Bicycling Club where we demonstrated what a social riding club is all about at the annual "ALS Bike Trek MN". http://www2.mda.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=24442
Rita, who is one of our active riders, lost her brother Mark in 2007to ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, which is a disease which causes the death of neurons controlling voluntary muscles.) Rita, to fight back against this horrible disease, sent out a request to club members to sponsor her on this fund-raising ride. Not only did she get financial support from members, she was joined by 19 other club members who also made their own commitments and joined her on the ride. The group rode together and finished off the ride with lunch at a New England themed pub in the middle of Scott County.
This was Hiawatha’s first “Ambassador” ride where club members get mileage credit for riding a charitable or a special community event. Ambassador rides are new this year to HBC and were championed by Leon who is the club’s Ride Leader Administrator. Leon worked on the proposal for Ambassador rides and it was fully supported by the Hiawatha Board of Directors.
Club members, let’s keep up this community participation! If you are a ride leader and riding a community event post it on our ride schedule. If you are not a ride leader but would like to have Hiawatha participate at an event, talk it up with your favorite ride leaders to see who would lead the event.