VENICE – On your mark, get set, go!
The Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation hosted its third annual “Ride for a Better Community” event Sunday. Chair of the foundation, David Slaman says about fifty percent of the people on the bike ride are yacht club members, and the other fifty percent are people from the area.
“We even had people come in from Michigan and Wisconsin and some other places, they come down and it’s a good time to come visit relatives,” says Chair of Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation, David Slaman.
Organizations like All Faiths Food Bank, Southeastern Guide Dogs, and Venice High School JROTC benefit from the ride. Slaman says most of the money raised comes from sponsorships for the bike ride, and from people who sponsor riders.
“So if someone can’t ride, they can still sponsor a relative, a friend, or a business associate on the bike ride,” says Slaman.
The bicycle ride is 12 miles around Venice Island, most of it is on the pathway, while some of it is on the street. The goal for this year’s bike ride was to 40 thousand dollars.
“I’m happy to let everybody know that we’ve reached 48 thousand dollars this morning, so that’ll go towards our annual give this year which we’ve already set our budget to a 107 to 110 thousand dollars that we’ll disburse during 2020,” says Slaman.
Proceeds from the bike ride will benefit additional charities around the Suncoast. For a full list of you can visit their website.
