• By RJ Walters, Editor •
Drafting on the momentum of knowing they were raising money for the least of the least thousands of miles away and taking in the unpredictable Michigan weather one pedal at a time, a record group of 14 riders made the third annual Ride for Haiti a marked success.
Traversing more than 400 miles across terrain spanning from Coloma, Mich. to the Mackinac Bridge from June 6-11, avid United Methodist cyclists raised more than $18,000 for The Methodist Children’s Orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Haitian Artisans for Peace International (HAPI).
Local United Methodist Churches housed and fed the riders along their trek, much to the appreciation of the ride’s co-coordinator the Rev. Rob Nystrom.
“Once again the churches were very, very hospitable and I think West Michigan is learning the practice of radical hospitality, which is a true blessing for our connectional system and our church’s ministries in general,” said Nystrom, the pastor at Birchwood UMC in Battle Creek. “We experienced the connectional system very strongly and with radical hospitality.”
He said riders offered to pay the church’s $5 per meal, but many of the congregations told them to put that money back into the fundraising pot.
Another pronounced sign of the momentum the initiative is building was seen when the bikers stopped at the Petoskey United Methodist Church.
“They became familiar with project and they organized a children’s Ride for Haiti and they raised money and their kids bicycled for 10 miles on a nice trail in Petoskey by the lakeshore,” Nystrom said. “They presented us a check at dinner time for $1,300 and that’s just phenomenal.”
First-time Ride for Haiti participant Roger Cox, a member of the United Methodist Church of the Dunes, said morale was high throughout the ride and everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy it.
“We had a little bit of rain a couple of time,” he said. “The winds weren’t bad and most of the days we actually had a tail wind, with a head wind one day, but it was pretty light.”
The only major setback occurred when a rider was admitted to a hospital for what doctors determined was likely a heat stroke. In an act of solidarity another cyclist dropped out of the event to make sure his friend returned home safely.
The event accommodated five more riders than in 2010 and in 2009 Nystrom laid the foundation for the event by making a two-week solo trek around Lake Michigan. He called it the Ride for Water and he raised money for water filtration systems in Haiti.
The event as people know it is in the process of evolving as Cox and Nystrom strive to streamline the Ride for Haiti and make it more accessible to riders across the state.
Before moving to Michigan Cox participated six times in the Nebraska United Methodist Bike (NUMB) Ride for Hunger, which has raised over $460,000 for world hunger projects since 1996.
Cox said the ride had a record 144 cyclists in 2010, in part because it is a more compact, less strenuous test of endurance than the Ride for Haiti.
“I think the four or five day ride format is a little better and maybe limit the number of miles to about 60 per day instead of 75-80,” Cox said.
Nystrom said he expects to at least double the number of entrants next year and he and Cox have been in discussions about creating circular routes that are more logistically friendly for all involved.
“We want to involve more people and quite possibly we will choose a route that journeys into the Detroit Conference as well,” he said.
Donations can still be made to the Ride for Haiti, electronically at www.haitiride.org or by sending a check to the West Michigan Conference Treasurer, with “RFH” marked on the memo line.
