TV Star Sends Off Bikers

By COLlive reporter

And they are off!

A group of Jewish bikers launched their cross county trek “Bike 4 Friendship” to benefit special needs children at California’s Half Moon Bay State Beach on Sunday.

The ceremony began with the traditional tire dipping in the Pacific Ocean representing a ride that will take these bikers from coast to coast.

In around 6 weeks, after they have covered 3,279 miles from Los Angeles to New York, they will be doing the same in the Atlantic Ocean.

The 7 male bikers, proudly wearing yarmulkas and tzitzis, were then joined by over 30 bikers for a ceremonial 20 mile ride.

Sending them off were children and families of Friendship Circle in Southern California, organized by the Shluchim families Baitelman, Zacks and Cunin and music by the Rogers Park Band.

The purpose of Friendship Circle International’s cross country bike ride is to spread awareness and raise funds for children who have special needs and teens who volunteer to make a difference in their lives.

Mendel Groner, who heads Friendship Circle’s development department and helped organize this trip, views the biking adventure as not only platform for awareness, but an opportunity to unite Friendship Circle communities—there are hundreds of them—across the United States and the world.

“The trip has been a real draw for people. Biking across the country in general has that ‘wow!’ factor and here the cyclists are not your typical prototypes,” he told Lubavitch.com.

“Every cyclist is a religious Jew, some Yeshiva students, some college students, some dads even, who all believe in the Friendship Circle’s message and want to undertake this incredible physical endeavor in order to make a difference in lives of special needs kids.”

Also there at the kick off event was 11 year-old David Mazouz, a actor who portrayed an autistic child on a TV series on the Fox network.

Follow their journey at Bike4Friendship.com