And while those artists are here to make money, the Social Security Board is hoping to raise money with its Ride Across Belize. Last year they raised $60,000 for the Rockview Hospital and this year’s ride has three projects it hopes to assist. It rolls from November 27th to the 30th and in 4 days – the riders will go from Corozal to Punta Gorda. It’s all about getting you to support the charity initiative. Chandra Cansino is one of the organizers.
Chandra Cansino, Organizer
“We’ve selected three charities for the ride this year, the biggest one is Marla’s House of Hope, it is a home for abused children, victims of abuse – physical and mental, and the second is the Diabetes Association but it is specifically for a prevention program as opposed to funding treatment for chronic diabetes patients and the third one is the Belize Blood Donors Association.
Its not a race and we cannot reiterate that enough, it is a ride and so we have participants from cycling clubs that are not professional, from people that just use riding as exercise and we also have the professional teams participating. But we ride at a pace that pretty much most people can keep up with, non-professional and professional.
We decided that by doing a ride we can combine both of them and promote healthy lifestyle as well as raising needy funds for needy charities. You can either participate and ride or you can contribute by calling into Social Security and giving a pledge. It is all like I said before totally a staff initiative so the fundraising part of it is done by staff members as well. We select employers from the Employers’ Listing we have, we issue letters, we make phone calls, and we encourage the public to participate and to give generously.”
Last year, they raised $60,000 with a contribution of $25,000 from Social Security which will also be contributed this year. This year’s event will also feature a toy drive component for children from flood affected homes.
