JADE BETZER / Scroll

Bikes abound: Bike and Build hosts benefit dinner for 2006

Megan Ransom RAN04008@BYUI.EDU Campus asst. editor

“Last summer I completed my first coast-to-coast cycling tour, from Seattle to Boston. I saw the immediate needs of our country; I cycled through towns and saw homes without heat and running water. I was able to see where I was needed and what was needed. So this year I became involved with Bike and Build,” said Jade Betzer, a freshman from Shelley, Idaho.

Bike and Build is an independent company that works with young adults to raise money for housing organizations. It also helps underwrite these housing projects through long-distance fundraising cycling trips according to bikeandbuild.org.

Betzer is the leader of one of the five coast-to-coast cycling tours Bike and Build sponsors going from Virginia Beach, Va., to Cannon Beach, Ore.

Betzer and other leaders recruited 34 young adults, ages 18-25, to ride for the project.

Bike and Build is hosting a benefit dinner to help raise money for the 2006 Central United States Tour.

The dinner will be held at the Madison High School Cafeteria April 13 from 6 - 8:30 p.m. and will be catered by Johnny Carinos. Tickets are $8 and can be bought at U.S. Bank, World Gym or Sticks and Stones/Sled Shed in Rexburg.

“Each rider is fundraising, promoting the cause and raising awareness for the currently poor situation millions of families are in. Incorporating such a deserving cause with educating and involving young adults, who will really make an impact on the people they serve and their peers, is so exhilarating,” Betzer said.

Bike and Build has raised $442,804 for housing projects executed by young adults in three seasons. This summer it hopes to raise $300,000, according to bikeandbuild.org.

The CUS tour will begin May 18 and conclude on July 23.

“As a 19-year-old girl from a town of less than 3,000 where nobody is expected to succeed or change anything, I see this as an opportunity to be the example, not the exception. I want young adults to know that they can make a difference and be encouraged to do so,” Betzer said.