Texas 4000 bike ride gets warm reception in Greenwood Village

Greenwood Village Mayor Ron Rakowsky declared June 15, 2014, Texas 4000 Fighting Cancer Day in the city.

The Texas 4000 is an annual 4,000-mile bike riding effort to raise money to conquer cancer.

Students at the University of Texas volunteer to join the bicycle ride, with more than enough students applying so the effort starts with the selection of 84 applicants who will take one of three routes from Austin to Anchorage, Alaska, aiming to raise $4,500 per rider with stops along the route for fundraising receptions and overnight stays at the homes of local supporters. This effort is an 18-month long program for each rider that includes training before the official ride.

The Greenwood Village reception was held at the Sundance Hills Pool with what riders said was the biggest reception they’d had this year.

The local effort was spearheaded by Lori and Brent Snyder. Their son Seth Snyder, a former Greenwood Village resident and graduate of High Plains Elementary School, Campus Middle School and Cherry Creek High School, was part of the 2014 University of Texas graduating class. He and some other CCHS graduates are part of one team that attracted a lot of their friends to the barbecue.

“We ride in support of cancer research,” riders said during the presentation, also declaring that the teams are ‘Fighting Cancer Every Mile.’”

Their motivation comes from understanding that about 500,000 people in the U.S. will die of cancer this year. At the urging of team members, many guests raised their hands, replying with the names of people they knew who are now battling or who had battled the disease.

Courtney Schutz is ride director and Seth Snyder is assistant ride director. Seth noted that his grandmother is battling what started out as uterine cancer, while Schultz’s father battled multiple myeloid cancer and said, “I’d rather honor him than grieve for him.”

Among sites receiving funds from the Texas 4000 effort are M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as well as smaller nonprofits.

Visit www.texas4000.org for more information.

by Glory Weisberg

http://www.villagerpublishing.com/texas-4000-bike-ride-gets-warm-reception-greenwood-village/