Cross-country cycling brings poverty issues to light
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A group of Lasallian volunteers pack take-home food as they help prepare and serve the Sunday mid-day meal at the Jubilee Kitchen on Wyandotte Street in the Hill District. The volunteers are on a cross-county bike trip to promote service and fight poverty. -
Lasallian volunteers help prepare and serve the Sunday mid-day meal at the Jubilee Kitchen on Wyandotte Street. -
Lasallian volunteers made a stop at in the Hill District during a cross-county bike trip to promote service and fight poverty.
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A group of volunteers departed Warrenton, Ore., on June 16. They're making their way across the country to Long Branch, N.J., stopping along the way to donate their time to raise awareness about poverty.
And they're doing it on bicycles.
The Lasallian Volunteers stopped at the Jubilee Kitchen in the Hill District on Sunday, and they were doing more than preparing a hot meal for hungry people.
"We're here serving food, but in a lot of ways, we're being fed as well," said Zac Ufnar, coordinator for recruitment for Lasallian Volunteers, a nonprofit program of De La Salle Christian Brothers.
Lasallian Volunteers recruits mostly 20-somethings to spend one year as teachers, tutors and social workers at Lasallian schools and other agencies that serve the poor. This year, Lasallian has 52 volunteers working across the U.S., according to Mr. Ufnar.
Most of the volunteers on the cross-country ride are former members of the one-year program, which has existed for more than 20 years.
PG VIDEO: VOLUNTEERS LEND A HAND IN HILL DISTRICTThe coast-to-coast, 3,600-mile ride was inspired by a similar ride that highlighted the importance of literacy programs, and as the 10-year anniversary of that ride approached, a few volunteers decided to bring the program back with a new focus on poverty and to raise money for the Lasallian Volunteers.
Brother Ed Phelan, who organized the 2001 ride, agreed to come along and, at 71, plans to spend about half of the trip on a bicycle.
There are 12 riders participating in the whole ride, and 18 others will join in for regional legs of the trip. About 40 people will be involved throughout the two-month trip, said Mari Anzicek, 29, a rider, co-coordinator of the ride and director of development for Lasallian Volunteers.
Mr. Ufnar, a Forest Hills native who now lives in Washington, D.C., is riding in the Pittsburgh-to-New Jersey leg of the trip.
First Published August 8, 2011 12:00 am
