Canadian Humanitarian hosts bike race to raise money Ethiopian projects
Canadian Humanitarian hosted its second annual Test of Humanity Alberta mountain bike race Saturday to raise money for after-school programs in Ethiopia.
The all-ages event was held in the Redcliff coulees, attracting 40 volunteers and 35 participants, who raised about $6,000 for the cause, Canadian Humanitarian program director Deborah Northcott said.
“We have 10 projects in Ethiopia and eight of them are after-school projects,” she said. “The students wouldn’t go to school at all if we didn’t support them.”
The after-school programs include tutoring, music and sports club, and a hot meal, Northcott added.
“We support children form the time they enter our program until they finish their post-secondary education,” she said, adding they currently have 780 students.
The goal is to take children “out of the cycle of poverty,” said Northcott.
Greg Watson of Cyclepath, the Medicine Hat-based business that hosted the event along with the 670 Collective Mountain Bike Club, said last year’s event was the first of this type in Medicine Hat and Redcliff.
“It was kind of exciting for us,” he said. “We never really had a facility.
“With all the hard work the 670 Collective is doing, we now have a tremendous trail system up there that we want to showcase for them and the town of Redcliff. That was a great opportunity for us to do that.”