It is October already and time mount up and ride for a great cause! On October 13 I will be heading out for a 100km ride to support my favorite fund raising event “Ride for Refugees”. I am looking for your help to make my 100km ride worth the journey.
This cycling event is held each fall and this year it is bigger than ever. This year I am only one of three hundred riders who will be riding on that day. I am very excited to see the number of cyclists growing with each passing year. I am also thankful to see the awareness and the rising support for refugees being served through the heartfelt organization, International Teams Canada
Last year’s ride was tough; it rained, sleeted, snowed and hailed over the course of the ride. There was 35km of head wind on the ride out, one inch of snow on the road and at times not more that 50ft of visibility. But with all that said; this ride still dwarfs in comparison of the challenges faced by a refugee.
The following link is a video put together from interviews and video shots taken during last year’s ride. From this you will get a sense of what the conditions were like.
This year’s event goal is to raise $250,000 and I am looking to raise my share of that goal. This year my personal goal is to raise $2,500 and any amount you give will help reach or exceed it. Please help me reach my goal and help these people, in giving you too will be riding with me on that day.
Would you sponsor me?
There are over 35,000,000 refugees in the world. Many come to Canada and they need our support as they adjust to our Canadian way of life. Imagine snow for the first time. Imagine if the letters all ran backwards to what you were familiar with reading. Imagine being alienated from your friends and family. They need our support and International Teams (www.iteams.ca) has been serving refugees for over 25 years.
You can also go online to http://www.rideforrefugees.com/ and click on sponsor a rider. Once there you can donate with any credit card to my personal fundraising goal. This site also contains a ton of information about the ride and the cause we are riding for.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Relatives seeking information on two Israeli soldiers who were seized by Hezbollah militants in northern Israel at the start of last year’s Lebanon war met Wednesday with Pope Benedict XVI. Benedict listened to the appeal by relatives of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who are making a two-day visit to Italy and the Vatican as part of a campaign to enlist foreign help to obtain information on the soldiers and secure their release, said Oded Ben-Hur, Israel’s ambassador to the Holy See.
Hezbollah has not released any details on the condition of the soldiers or provided any sign they are still alive since they seized the pair in the July 12 cross-border raid that sparked the conflict.
The group of relatives, including Regev’s brother and Goldwasser’s parents and wife, spoke briefly with Benedict during his weekly public audience and gave him a booklet with paintings from the Bible and photos of the captive soldiers, Ben-Hur said.
“You could see he was very touched,” Ben-Hur said.
The relatives were also scheduled to meet with top Italian officials later Wednesday, including Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema.
Meanwhile, Benedict also condemned Tuesday’s bombings on commuter buses in Lebanon that killed three people.
In a telegram to Lebanese Cardinal Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir, the pope said he was “deeply pained by the serious attack” and was praying for the victims and their families.
He also urged “the Lebanese people and its leaders to unanimously reject violence” and work for “national unity and common good.”
The explosions on a busy mountain highway in a Christian area northeast of Beirut stoked fears of turmoil a day before pro-government supporters marked the anniversary of the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Palestinians are among those who mourned the death of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein this past weekend. According to some analysts, one of the key reasons Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza held Hussein in such regard is because of the generous financial support the former Iraqi dictator gave them for terrorist attacks against the Jews. Reportedly, Saddam sent $25,000 to the families of each homicide bomber that blew himself up in an effort to kill and maim as many Jews as possible, and also offered $10,000 to the families of each Palestinian killed in fighting. That blood money, according to Associated Press assessments, totaled an estimated $35 million. Also, during the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam attacked Israel in a failed ploy to force his Arab allies to abandon the United States-led coalition arrayed against him and join Iraq in fighting the Jewish State. Over the past weekend, Palestinians referred to Hussein’s execution as martyrdom and held parades and other gatherings to honor the mass murderer.
