Rachel’s Ride for Rwanda started in 2014, when 11-year-old Rachel Fitz had an idea.
She and her family were back in Canada after time in Rwanda doing missionary work and the poverty she’d seen had made an indelible impression.
“When we lived in Rwanda for three years, the children who walked by our house each day on their way to school had so little and I wished there was something I could do to help them,” she said.
After volunteering with an Okanagan fundraiser, the Wellspring Foundation Lake2Lake ride, she proposed a kid’s ride near Fort Langley, along the Fort-to-Fort trial.
“I thought, if adults can do this, why can’t kids?”
Since then, the event has raised over $70,000.
For her efforts, Rachel received the Bev Gold youth community service award at the opening ceremonies for the Aldergrove Fair Days after the first year of the ride.
This year will mark its fifth anniversary and the largest ride to date, with 87 registered riders, who have already raised more than $15,000 in advance of the June 23rd event.
As before, cyclists of all ages will join together to ride either 5.5 km. or 10.5 km. through the Fort-to-Fort trail in Langley, and then enjoy a barbecue together at Derby Reach Park.
Since 2004, the Langley-based Wellspring Foundation for Education has been working with Rwandans to help the country Rwanda overcome a huge educational gap and extreme poverty by transitioning towards a service based economy by the year 2020.
Wellspring has helped create and supports a network of more than 800 teachers called the Association of Committed Teachers (ACT Rwanda) and has established one of the top schools in Rwanda with The Wellspring Academy
READ MORE: Rachel’s Ride for Rwanda returns to Derby Reach Park
READ MORE: Lake2Lake Ride for Rwandan school in the Okanagan.
More info about the Langley ride is available at www.rachelsride.ca.
dan.ferguson@langleytimes.com
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