Sign up to pedal for a cure at Kids America
COSHOCTON – The community is invited to come pedal for a cause on Saturday, Nov. 10 at Kids America.
“I’ve wanted to partner with Kids America for quite some time and I was excited when I took this opportunity to their new manager and he agreed to work with us,” said Tracy Barnhouse, American Cancer Society staff partner for Coshocton. “I want to work with other businesses in the community and get them involved as much as possible with Relay For Life.”
Registration for the Pedal to end Cancer will start at 8 a.m. and riders will sign up for time slots that begin at 8:30 a.m. and go to 5 p.m.
“Our goal is to keep all the (stationary) bikes going at the same time and never stop,” said Isaac Bush, Kids America executive director.
Participants can cycle the entire time or form a team and share their three hour cycling time with three teammates. There is a $25 registration fee per participant and riders are encouraged to raise $100 per hour of participation.
“For the ride they need to raise $300, but everyone is welcomed and encouraged to raise more if they can,” Barnhouse said. “Participants will receive a t-shirt and we will have some kind of award for the most money raised.”
Proceeds from the fundraiser will be shared between the American Cancer Society and Kids America.
“They are a nonprofit too and cater to families and children,” Barnhouse said. “They also want to be involved in the community and this will help them get people in to see what they do. We have a lot of the same goals.”
Bush agreed that the partnership was a good fit.
“Kids America is trying to fulfill its mission statement and part of that is providing what we can to help promote healthy lifestyles in Coshocton County and surrounding areas,” he said. “We want to be part of anything health-orientated in Coshocton. The American Cancer Society is trying to achieve its mission to defeat cancer through this (stationary) cycling activity and we have the bikes to help take part in their effort to defeat cancer.”
Barnhouse added that the Pedal to end Cancer is a fairly new fundraiser for the American Cancer Society.
“It was started not quite a year ago,” Barnhouse said. “It seemed to be a popular fundraiser for the communities that have done it. It’s been well received and we hope it is for us too. We’ve been looking for new ways to get more of the community involved with us. A lot of people think they have to be on a Relay For Life team to help. We are trying to get more community involvement by doing one time fundraisers and reaching new groups and educating them about Relay For Life and what we do.”
To register for the Nov. 10 fundraiser, contact Barnhouse at 740-509-0196 or e-mail tracy.barnhouse@cancer.org.
“We encourage people to register in advance, but we would never turn anyone away,” she said.
Barnhouse and Bush also are partnering together for A Dodgeball for the Cure event being planned for December.
“It’s another opportunity for us to get people in our doors and support the American Cancer Society,” Bush said.
He added that in 2017 more than 50,000 people came to Kids America and they want to continue to grow that number and partner with as many people as they can. One way Bush plans to do that is by adding more events by being part of a competitive soccer league, bringing club basketball and indoor softball to the facility and working on developing an outdoor baseball and softball tournament.
“We are reaching out and doing a lot more things,” he said. “We want to be able to knock our prices down for activities to be able to allow more kids to participate in what we are offering. We want to be more accessible to the community.”
Category: Clubs & Organizations
