VERO BEACH — Rev. Scott W. Alexander, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Vero Beach will embark on a demanding month-long, 3,300, 115 mile-a-day bike ride across America to beat hunger.
Beginning on Sunday April 22, 2012 (by dipping his bike’s rear wheel in the waters of the Pacific Ocean at Costa Mesa, California) and ending to a rally at Waldo’s inside the historic Driftwood Resort on Vero’s beach Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at 5 p.m. (by dipping his bike’s front wheel in the Atlantic), he will ride all 3,300 miles, challenging organizations and individuals of the Vero Beach community to donate money per mile to help beat hunger…both locally and globally.
Some personal friends and supporters will join him for the last four days of the ride (350 miles), “bringing him home” from Savannah, Georgia to Vero Beach. No doubt this ride will challenge him physically, emotionally and spiritually but I as an avid cyclist, he is currently training for the event, riding 30-40 miles each day and swimming 4 to 5 days a week in order to make this significant contribution to helping to end hunger.
Rev. Alexander has been the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Vero Beach for the last year and a half and has currently rallied the endorsements for The Ride to Beat Hunger by the Oceanside Rotary Club and the Vero Beach Ministerial Association, two organizations in which he is an active member. A committee has formed to join his efforts in helping to organize sponsorships, publicity, photography, video, website and blogs, all to document the effort, as well as the official rally once he completes the trip. He is seeking more community volunteers to take part on sub committees.
According to Rev. Alexander, “I am a veteran charity cyclist, having ridden across America in both 2003 and 2007 raising $20,000 for a favorite charity of mine…La Clinica Del Pueblo, a free health clinic for recent Latino immigrants in the Washington, DC area.” Rev. Alexander looks forward to this latest ride saying, “I love riding across this vast and beautiful nation of ours on behalf of a cause I believe in…combating hunger both here on the Treasure Coast and around the world.”
Larry Labadie, a Rotary member participating on the committee is excited about the fundraising possibilities for this event.
“I will be working with Rotary Clubs along the month long bicycle route raising funds for The Ride to Beat Hunger,” he says. “We have established a category for Rotary Clubs along the way or local businesses here in Vero Beach to become a day sponsor. For example on Day 7, Rev Alexander will be passing through Albuquerque NM or on Day 22 it will be Tuscaloosa AL and so forth. The idea of this lends more fundraising opportunities and a unique way to help achieve our goals.”
Members of the Treasure Coast community who want to partner with Rev. Alexander in the project can also donate per mile to help him reach his $50,000 goal. A pledge of a dollar a mile will raise $3,000, 10 cents a mile will raise $300, a nickel per mile pledge will contribute $150, and a penny a mile will raise $30 toward the goal. Business sponsorships are also being developed.
Donations can be made out to “Ride to Beat Hunger” and can be sent to P.O. Box 650126, Vero Beach, FL 32965. The Ride to Beat Hunger is a 501C-3 organization and an account has been activated at Grand Bank & Trust in Vero Beach.
The goal is to raise a net of $50,000 or more to be split evenly between the Harvest Food and Outreach Center of Vero Beach (which distributes low cost food locally to those in need) and for Stop Hunger Now (an established international organization which packages millions of sample meal packets to be distributed around the world, primarily through school feeding programs in hunger-stricken regions of the world).
With others of good will around the globe Rev. Alexander believe his ride can make a real difference. He knows there will be days on this ride where he will be pushed to his limits as a human being. But the specter of hunger is such that he is eager to undertake this month long challenge. He is confident that that compassionate and generous people of the Vero Beach area will help him to achieve his goal. Rev. Alexander, shows his personal commitment to beat hunger by contributing the $11,000 it will cost him to complete the ride.
In conjunction with their anticipated $25,000 gift, the Stop Hunger Now organization will send a “meal packet assembly team and materials” to Vero Beach, where organized volunteers of all ages in a one day effort, on June 9, 2012, to help in the creation of up to 200,000 meal packets for hungry children.
Being free of hunger is humanity’s most fundamental need and human right. It is the obligation of everyone who has the means to do what they can to eliminate the scourge of hunger and starvation from our planet. The goal of his ride is to make a significant contribution to ending hunger, both locally and globally.
To get involved, call Rev. Alexander at (772) 494-5009 or toll free (855)494-5009 or visit www.ridetobeathunger.org to view a video offering more detailed information.
