We Ride For Kids

[sr1436]

Overall, today's We Ride For Kids was a great event. Appeared to me to have several hundred participants. Which means a lot of money raised for local kids.

The organizing committee, who ever you are, you did a great job.

Sumter County Sheriff was AMAZING!!

Unfortunately our very own Dept of Public Safety not so much. I think their only function was to get the riders thru the Belevdere golf cart gate. Not so efficient at doing so and get this, there was three of them there. Yep, three Dept of Public Safety employees there to one push red button to raise gate! So makes one wonder if they are simply over staffed or mismanaged, or both. Either way seems to me that they could be managing their funding (that I'm sure you and I pay for is some fashion) much much better. Maybe, should shut down the entire dept and turn over to the county. They (the county) certainly had their act together today.

Nevertheless, except for Dept of Pubic Safety, overall a worthy event for our local community.

[Bernie]

For those not familiar with We Bike For Kids event---- the Village Bicycle Club hosted the third annual “We Bike for Kids-The Villages” Charity Bicycle Ride on March 15, 2014. The event, was presented by Parady Financial Group, was held at the SeaBreeze Recreation Center in The Villages.
Turnout was very good for this fun-filled event that began and ended at the SeaBreeze Recreation Center. It featured three routes: metric century (62 mile), 30-mile route, and a 10-mile route. Riders of all abilities can participate. DJ Bob Fowler sent off each ride amidst the fanfare and excitement. Several changes from last year greatly helped improve the overall experience for the riders.
Riders were given a light breakfast, a high tech Dri-wick T-shirt, goody bag, and raffle prizes. A catered buffet lunch by Redsauce followed the ride. The Chinese auction included some terrific items, including a $600 golf package at the Melreese Golf Course.
Proceeds from the ride will benefit Project Legacy and Sumter County Youth Center. Project Legacy is a local non-profit organization that identifies the needs of children in our community, then organizes its partners and resources to address those needs. Sumter County Youth Center is a non-profit, community-based organization, serving the social service needs of youth and families in Sumter County.
The ride was monitored and patrolled by our Sumter County Sherriff department and we thank them for helping improve safety of the ride. The Village Cycles provided technical support.
More information at We*Bike For Kids 2014 - Home (http://www.webikeforkids.com)

[Chazz]

This was the third year we participated in the ride, and it was wonderful, as always! Started off a little chilly, but turned into a perfect ride. The only gripe some of us had (not the organizers fault) was the deplorable condition of the portion of the ride on CR101 outside The Villages. That road really needs resurfacing.

One sad note, there was a female rider on a tandem who had a serious fall resulting in a broken hip. We wish her a speedy recovery from, what we understand, will be hip replacement surgery.