10th Annual Ride for Pride Aug. 27

Charlotte's Cannonballs Cycling Team presents its tenth annual Ride for Pride, an official MS 150 training ride, on Saturday, Aug. 27.

Location: All rides begin and end at: Liburdi Dimetrics, 404 Armour Street, Davidson, NC.

Time: The 100K & 50K rides begin at 8:00 am (Rain or Shine), the 16K ride begins at 9:00 am.

Registration fees: $12.50 per person before August 23, 2005, or $15.00 afterwards or day of ride. Register on line on the Cannonballs Cycling Team Web site.

Support: Rest Stops, SAGs, mechanical assistance, and yummy refreshments.

This year's ride promises to be another special one. In addition to the standard provisions of water, Gatorade, cookies, bananas, oranges,and crackers, The Rest Stops will be individually stocked with Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches (c/o Sharon Presbyterian Boy Scouts), Carrot Soufflé, Ice Towels, and plenty of Cannonball goodwill. At the end of the line we'll be serving pasta salad and yummy chicken legs from Anntony's Caribbean Cafe.

The beneficiary again this year is Trips for Kids-Charlotte. This organization has stepped up significantly this past year in continuing their commitment in giving over 600 at-risk kids an opportunity to experience the joys of mountain biking. This year TFK's has also started a Bike Recyclery that takes donated bicycles and refurbishing them for resale. The program is based out of Black Sheep Cycles on West Morehead. The Earn-A-Bike program is also based out of Black Sheep and works in conjunction with the recyclery where we put selected kids thru a eight session curriculum teaching them bike maintenance from how to change a flat to repacking wheel sets. At the end of the program the "graduates" get to choose one of the bikes they've been working on as their own. We had our first graduate last week. Willie, who started with us while he was at Elon Homes, rode away on a spiffy red mountain bike that he took great pride in restoring.

All of this is to ask for your support. Outside some nominal food certificates from Harris Teeter, the Ride for Pride is our only funding source for the year. With the potential growth of the recyclery and its accompanying need for parts, we need all the participants we can muster.