FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bike Kenya 2012 to
Benefit Education in Kenya
Indianapolis, Indiana, April 25, 2012 -- Nine amateur
cyclists will pedal 600 miles as a team through Kenya, May 8-21, 2012, to raise awareness and funds to build a needed high
school near Eldoret.
Eight cycling
participants from North America are paying their own expenses and attempting to
raise $40,000 US to purchase property and construction materials for the secondary
school. Funds are being raised as
contributors match the cyclists’ “sweat equity” with small per-mile donations
(5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, $1, etc.).
Bike Kenya
2012 participants from North America will be joined by Bishop Nixon Dingili of
Nairobi, Kenya for the excursion. Bishop
Nixon Dingili is head overseer of the Free Methodist Church in Kenya.
Cycling
participants will pedal approximately 600 miles (966 kilometers) over 12 days through
hilly terrain along the Great Rift Valley west of Nairobi. For one stage, the
team will ride among large game through Hell’s Gate National Park. In Kenya, the
cycling tour will begin and end in Nairobi.
Bike Kenya
2012 has three active Internet-based sites by which the public can track photos
and updates of the team’s journey as it progresses, learn about the project,
and contribute to the cause:
Bike Kenya
2012 blog: http://bikekenya2012.blogspot.com
Bike Kenya
2012 on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bikekenya2012
BK 2012 via
ICCM: www.childcareministries.org/participate/bikekenya2012.php
Team members
range in age from 20 into retirement.
North American participants in the Bike Kenya 2012 team include:
Bob Burtch
of Batavia, Illinois
Kevin
Williams of Sorento, Illinois
Jack Hughey
of Alton, Illinois
Mark and
Megan Booth of Mogador, Ohio
Alex
Drummond of Indianapolis, Indiana
Rebecca Lamp
of Bucyrus, Ohio
John
Franklin Hay of Indianapolis, Indiana (team leader)
Bike Kenya
2012 is being facilitated through VISA
(Volunteers In Service Abroad) Ministries and International Child Care Ministries
(ICCM), both based in Indianapolis, Indiana, and affiliated with the Free
Methodist Church USA.
The high
school that is the focus of Bike Kenya 2012 is planned to be built near
Eldoret. It will be operated by
International Child Care Ministries (ICCM) of Kenya. The secondary school will provide formal
and progressive educational opportunity for students who are at risk of not
continuing to graduation.
ICCM
currently sponsors more than 1,100 Kenyan children for their education. ICCM also operates a small number of schools
in some of Kenya’s hardest-to-serve areas. ICCM sponsors or scholarships 20,000
children in 30 countries and engages in creative initiatives in expression of
its vision to “activate change locally to impact children globally.”
John
Franklin Hay, organizer and team leader of Bike Kenya 2012, points to the
combination of a love of cycling and a care for education in international
settings that created the impetus for the project. “We are responding to the invitation of our
hosts in Kenya to use bicycling to raise awareness of the good work ICCM is
doing in Kenya and raise funds for a new school.”
Hay says: “We
look forward to encountering the beauty of Kenya’s people and grand land over
these weeks. We hope we will be
something more than tourists. We want to make an ongoing investment in
education and international understanding.”
Contact:
John
Franklin Hay
ICCM
770 N High
School Rd
Indianapolis, IN 46214
xxx
1 comment:
Sorento Fourth grade is cheering you all on!!!!
Post a Comment