This article is from page 31 of the 2008-09-23 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 31 JPG
AFTER months of training and plan- ning, the determined peddlers of the East Clare Chernobyl Cycle Project have taken off again for a testing 300 km cycle in Belarus.
The cycle has taken place each Sep- tember since 1999 and this year, 10 cyclists are travelling including vet- eran trail-blazers, Pat O’Connor and Fran Rice from Parteen.
The cycle is over two and a half days from Minsk to Malech, but Pat says that “no-one was put off by that
— it’s afun cycle”.
The whole idea of the trip is to raise much needed funds to assist in carrying out improvements in special needs schools and orphanages which look after children affected by the Chernobyl disaster.
Each participant had to raise 2,600 to take part in the trip.
This year, there will be more that €25,000 raised for projects in Geantsvichi, Antopol and Malech institutions and more donations are coming in all the time.
“There were a lot of donations after
RTE screened a programme on con- ditions there and one item showed an horrific operation in which a young child was operated on without aes- thetic.
‘“We’ve put special collection boxes in shops around Scariff, Killaloe and Ennis, so people can donate anytime. There are on-going projects that al- ways need funding,” said Pat.
After the cycle, the team will visit the institutions to see what progress is being made and to see what is needed next.
‘The money raised last year went to
complete a laundry in Anotopol and a dining area in Geantsvichi, so we’ll be going to have a look at them,” said Pat.
“The 2007 cycle enabled us to forward €40,000 towards projects in the three different schools which we are working with at the moment and these projects will be completed J sole om Kol RUD UO AOD B ODO ome
The ten are currently on day two of the cycle, having flown out through Shannon on Sunday and they will be returning after their adventure next week.