Photo courtesy of Jessie Mann Photography
The ride may have taken place, but fundraising efforts aren’t slowing down one bit.
The second instalment of the Bike For Breakfast fundraiser took place this past Sunday at Inland Steel Products, and as of press time, a total of $86,938 had been raised for area school breakfast programs.
“I think this year was awesome. Last year was kind of lightning in a bottle and we nearly raised $300K. There wasn’t much going on last year so people had funds they had allocated for sponsorship, and people stepped up heavily last year,” said team member David Lopez, who took it upon himself to do some serious fundraising.
“This year, with COVID being sort of put to the wayside and with all of the events taking place, we knew it was going to be a little more difficult to attain that same number, but we set a goal of $100K and I think we’re going to make it. We’re so close.”
The organizations’s GoFundMe page is still live until September, giving the community a chance to help reach that goal.
Last year’s inaugural event saw a group of riders pedalling to Tuffnell Sask. and back raising close to $300K, but as Lopez explained, the community wanted to play a more pivotal role this year.
“Last year when we rode to Tuffnell and back we had a lot of people saying they wanted to ride with us, so this year we figured we’d make it more community based and keep it close to the community,” said Lopez.
“This allowed people to see us off as well as ride with us, but it also allowed everyone’s family to join and make a real day of it.
“It was about getting the community more involved and making sure if you wanted to ride, you were able to ride.”
This year’s ride saw a total of 30 cyclists from Lloydminster and surrounding area taking part.
One of Sunday’s riders was Source reporter Geoff Lee, who rode 80 km in 3:01:46 and raised a “whopping” $920 from three donors.
Source reporter Geoff Lee did his part last Sunday by riding 80 km in the second instalment of the Bike For Breakfast fundraiser for school breakfast programs. Lee raised $920 from three donors. Photo courtesy of Jessie Mann Photography
“Well, I like cycling, but to do that and raise money for charity sounded pretty good to me,” he said.
Lee was in utter shock when he received an $820 donation from the Russell family the night before the ride.
“I guess I’ve done a lot of stories on kids brain cancer survivor and cyclist Jarrod Russell as well as his niece, Shelby Lane, who is a rower. They really appreciated that and recognized it was also for a good cause so they jumped in. I was just amazed.
“I got choked up myself when I saw the email. I didn’t know how to respond at first, I was just overwhelmed by their generosity.”
Another local cyclist who decided to ride for a worthy cause was Dr. Kevin Govender, who rode 40 km on Sunday.
“Today was fantastic,” he said.
“I started cycling about a year ago just after the first Bike For Breakfast. I was inspired by these guys and I thought cycling was something I could get into, so it was just after that that I took it up.”
Aside from the health benefits of pedalling 40 km, Govender knows just how far the funds will go.
“This is a wonderful event, and to be able to provide breakfast at school for kids is just unbelievable. Our community comes through ever single time; you call on this community and they show up.”
Lopez echoed Govender and couldn’t believe the community support.
“The corporate sponsors were also amazing,” he said.
“Inland Steel donated $25K, Wayside donated $5K, both credit unions stepped up and donated, and we’d like to thank our other major sponsors, First General, Boundary Ford and Reid and Wright Advertising. The Lloydminster and District Co-op and Sobeys were also our grocery sponsors. Thank you to everyone.”
Spiro’s also donated $2,500 from their pizza campaign, which saw $5 from every pie sold going to the fundraiser.
“We’re keeping the fundraising open through the rest of this school year as well as the summer,” said Lopez. “We’re donating funds at the beginning of the school year, so any funds we generate now until September is going to feed the kids.”
