Ride to Provide, a student-run community service project, is set to take place this Sunday.
The first annual charity event will include members of the Hillel House and other participants at the University of Massachusetts biking through the Pioneer Valley in order to raise money for upcoming events.
The money raised will help to provide funding for Hillel’s community service projects. One of these better-known activities is “Challah for a Dollah,” when students bake and sell food to raise money for the Save Darfur Coalition and the American Jewish World Service. So far, this event has raised over $600.
Hillel students are also part of the “Meals on Wheels” program at the Anne Whalen House in Amherst. Every other week, students prepare meals for the low-income, primarily elderly residents of the home.
Members also sit down and share the meals with the residents, which is greatly appreciated by the recipients of their company. One resident said that it is one of the “highlight social events” for what could be “a somewhat lonely day for many of our residents.”
The Ride to Provide event will also increase funding for Alternative Spring Break. For the past two years, Hillel members have been making trips to the South to provide relief for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. They have helped rebuild homes and rejuvenate community centers in Mississippi and Louisiana.
Two of the event’s founders, chairperson Betsy Bertuzzi and Rabbi Saul Perlmutter, enthusiastically await Sunday.
“We are hoping this event will bring the community together to celebrate the season, community and family in a healthy and positive way while also supporting the many wonderful service projects performed by the students of UMass Hillel,” said Bertuzzi.
The bike ride will start and end at Hillel House. There are two courses set up, one of which is a 23-mile ride to begin at 9:30 a.m. The other is a 10-mile ride to begin an hour later.
Participants can register any time up to a half-hour before either ride. The ride costs $18 for students and all participants under 18, and $100 for all other participants. At noon there will be a post-ride celebration. Entry forms can be dropped off at Hillel House in person or submitted online at www.umasshillel.org/ridetoprovide.
Riders will be able to make rest stops at Sukkahs, traditional huts that are a part of the Jewish holiday Sukkot, which this year runs from Sept. 26 to Oct. 2.
Rabbi Perlmutter is very happy about the turnout so far. He said he is glad that so many people are willing to “help them [the volunteers] be able to help others.”
Lucas Correia can be reached at [email protected].
