lifeasmission » refugees

The Ride for Refuge 2011

JR Rozko — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:30:35 +0000

On Saturday, October 8, for the third year in a row, Amy and I will be participating in the Ride for Refuge, a bike ride that is meant to raise awareness and funds for the millions of people around the world who are displaced, vulnerable, or exploited.

Those words can be pretty tame if you just gloss over them, but the reality is that they speak to actual lives, for example, of families who have been torn apart and rendered homeless by war, kids who have been abandoned by their parents, and girls who have been sold, like a newspaper (and sometimes for less than one costs), to be used as sex slaves.

The ride is actually in Elgin this year which we’re really excited about (more specifics here).

Want to ride with us (the most awesome option) or sponsor our team (the slightly less, but still awesome option)? You can do both here: http://j.mp/rozkoriders2011. If the cause itself doesn’t do it for you, maybe the fact that you’ll get to hang out with the newest addition to the Rozko Riders team will!

Here’s a quick video that will tell you a bit more about the ride.

The Ride for Refugees

JR Rozko — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:03:14 +0000

Amy and I had a great time this past Saturday participating in the inaugural (for the US anyway) Ride for Refugees. We were joined by about 200 other riders in Geneva, IL who, together with the rest of the riders in the US, helped to raise over $100,000. Here’s us on our way.

We wanted to say a HUGE thanks to those of you who sponsored us, to Stephanie and the Olson’s who let us borrow their bikes, and to the Tebbe’s for their bike rack and helmet!

We raised $700 of our goal of $1000! Not bad for just beginning to get sponsors 5 days before the race.

If you were still interested in contributing to the assistance of refugees by sponsoring our team, you can do so here until the end of the month. Maybe we’ll meet that goal yet!!

It was a cool morning and the expected rain managed to hold off until close to the end of the race for those who were doing 60 miles.

I got caught up helping with traffic and parking duty and missed the 30-mile wave of riders, but rode with Amy for the 15-mile wave. When we got back, we switched bikes, and I went and did the 15-mile circuit again.

My cousin Gwen and her husband Rob joined our team at the last minute. They showed up later in the morning and each did the 15-mile ride as well.

Here’s a few pictures from the ride.

Riding for Refugees

JR Rozko — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:12:17 +0000

This Saturday Amy and I are participating in a Ride for Refugees. I did my first concentrated work with refugees when I was living in midtown Memphis and much of Amy’s current work has to do with refugees around the world. Helping people to become aware of the great needs of refugees here in the states and around the world as well as providing what assistance we can are things we both care about deeply. We’re hoping that you’ll help us by making a pledge to our ride, no matter the amount. I am planning to ride 30 miles, further than I have ever biked before and Amy will probably do 15 as she wants to get back sooner to help with other things that need done during the event.

You can see the details of the Ride for Refugees here.

You can visit out pledge page here.

The Facebook Fan page is here.

If you’re a Twitterer, you can follow here.

Thanks for checking it out and for your help. I’ll try to throw up some pictures and thoughts on the event next week.