The North Judson Kiwanis Club is once again undertaking a selfless endeavor as members will ride bikes for hours along the trails in North Judson, beginning at the old rest park off of State Road 10 at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 17. Dave Altman, chairman of the event, told WKVI that the participants will be rallying up donations from members of the community, either a flat donation or donations per hour or per mile with all proceeds going toward Riley Children’s Hospital.
“It’s such an outstanding place. If anybody’s ever been there, it is both disheartening and yet so uplifting at the same time because you go down there and see children of all stages of health issues and some aren’t gonna make it. Most of them, thank goodness, will. They do such a wonderful job down there and we’d do anything we can to help them out,” Altman said.
Altman said the Kiwanis Club chose to benefit Riley Children’s Hospital with the fundraiser because its a cause that nearly everyone in the community can appreciate.
“There’s so many people in the community in Starke County that have had to go to Riley for their own children or relatives that we thought this would be a very good fundraiser for our Kiwanis Club to do. And I know, personally, about 60 percent of our club members have had some reason to be at Riley Children’s Hospital over the last 20-30 years,” Altman said.
This is the sixth annual Ride for Riley and Altman said they usually make it their goal to raise at least $1000. Some members make two or three trips around the trails, while others will only be able to bike a few miles. With an age difference amongst members, some people walk, others ride bikes, but everyone does what they can in order to raise money to go toward this worthy cause.
Altman said they won’t know how much money was raised through the effort until all is said and done.
