Lund’s Ride for Children is in its 6th year and over the years has become an important fundraiser for Lund and a community event with loyal participants who look forward to it every Spring.
With 4 rides of various lengths, serious bikers and families with trailers, tag-a-longs and tricycles can all be accommodated. All rides start at Lund’s new building at 50 Joy Drive in South Burlington. The 16, 30 and 55 mile rides wind down through South Burlington, Shelburne and Charlotte with the furthest point in Ferrisburgh. The 4 mile family ride travels the South Burlington bike path with a rest stop and turnaround at the playground in Syzmanski Park. Returning riders are greeted with festivities – bouncy house, face painting, Joey the Clown, live music, Boloco Burritos, Ben and Jerry’s and lots more.
It is real family fun for a good cause and with the ride moving to June 1st this year, there’s a pretty good chance that it won’t snow. (Repeat riders have a hard time letting that one go –“Remember the year it snowed?”)
The event has a simple fundraising model – family riders over 4 years old pay $10 registration and are each required to raise $10. Riders in the longer rides pay a $50 registration fee and are asked to raise $100. Kids in the longer rides just pay a $25 registration fee. Every rider gets a fun T-shirt and entrance into a raffle with fabulous prizes from the Pumphouse, Shelburne Farms, Hotel Vermont, Smugglers’ Notch and more! Fundraising is easy with personalized websites and e-mail templates. When my family registered, it took us just one e-mail to meet our goals. (Hint: Start with the grandparents!) You can register online and find all the information at bike.lundvt.org and feel free to contact Amy Cronin at Lund at (802) 448-3617 if you have any questions.
So what does the money support?
Lund provides integrated family-centered treatment, adoption, family support and education services to women, children and families across Vermont. We have the only residential treatment center for substance abuse and mental health disorders in the state where women can live with their children while they get the help they need. So many moms don’t reach out for help because they don’t want to leave their kids and Lund removes this barrier. All of our services wrap around the family and provide them not just with treatment but with parenting skills, job training, high school completion, 5 STAR early education, and connection to other community resources so that they can be the successful after they leave Lund. We are also the oldest and largest non-profit adoption agency in the state and last year found homes for 188 children, including 170 older children who had previously been living in foster care. With the problem of substance abuse coming to the forefront of political and medical focus recently it is important to know that Lund has been on the cutting edge of treatment in Vermont since 2000 and has secured millions of dollars in federal grants to help Vermont families struggling with substance abuse. Yet we couldn’t do any of it with the support of the community members who believe in the work that we are doing.
Please consider joining us on Sunday June 1st for the 6th Annual Lund Ride for Children and support women, children and families in Vermont while you have a great time biking with your family.
If biking is just not your family’s thing at the moment (baby too tiny, bike too rusty, kids too fast on the downhills!) please feel free to just come and join in with the post-ride festivities at 50 Joy Drive in South Burlington from 11am onwards.
*Thank you to Lund for sharing about their event and all that they do to support women, children and families in our community. We are working on getting a BVTMB team registered to ride in this event and will be sharing more details with you all shortly! If you and your family is interested in potentially joining our team, please contact us at [email protected].
