CRC Prepares to Stage ‘Biggest Ever’ Bike Tour

Kevin Bouws of Grand Rapids is looking forward to the “immense challenge” of pedaling his bike across the United States this summer as part of the Christian Reformed Church’s Sea to Sea 2008 Bike Tour.

Cyclists will begin the Sea to Sea tour—a fundraiser to fight poverty—on June 28 in Seattle, Wash., and end nine weeks later in Jersey City, N.J. on Aug. 30, including a trek across a small section of Canada.

“I’m riding to make a lasting impact in the fight against poverty,” says Bouws, who this week became the 97th person to sign up for the entire ride.

On his application form, the 36-year-old mechanical engineer who attends Beckwith Hills CRC wrote that he also wants to ride “to enjoy God's creation and to glorify God through the use of the physical gifts He has given me.”

Bouws helped the tour pass a milestone when he signed up to go the distance. Tour organizers say that this will make Sea to Sea 2008 the largest group of cyclists ever to ride coast to coast across North America.

The tour was inspired by a similar cycling trip staged by the CRC in Canada in 2005. That tour included 165 riders, 96 of whom completed the entire route from Vancouver, B.C., to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Registration for next summer’s tour remains open until Jan. 31, 2008. In place of a registration fee, cyclists commit to raising $10,000 each (or $4,000 for one leg of the route) toward the cause of alleviating poverty locally and globally. The CRC hopes to raise $1.5 million to support its anti-poverty efforts.

Riders can sign up for one, two or all three legs of the 3,750-mile (6,000-km) route. To date, 125 cyclists are participating for at least two weeks. Registered riders include members of the CRC and other denominations. They range from novice to very experienced; from 18 to 71 years old, and include students, professors, corrections officers, truck drivers, ministers and retirees.

To learn about the tour and how to make donations to support this project, call 1-888-272-2453 or visit www.SeatoSea.org.

For more information contact David Raakman at 905-220-3910.