EVENT

San Mar’s TGBT Looking for Riders

There is still time to register for the biking experience of a lifetime.

The Great Bicycle Tour of the C&O Canal (TGBT) to be held Saturday, July 10 through Tuesday, July 13, is a benefit for San Mar Children's Home.

Already 120 riders are registered for the 186-mile ride along the C&O Canal—beginning in Cumberland, MD and ending in Georgetown, District of Columbia.  Ride capacity is 150.

The ride is fully supported.  Riders, their bikes and gear are transported from San Mar to Cumberland for the start of the ride through the country’s longest National Park. Four days later they will be transported from the end of the ride in Georgetown back to San Mar.

In between, riders are treated to one of the premier rides in the East with overnight stops in Hancock, Williamsport, and Frederick.  Community groups, including the Cumberland Rotary Club, and Lions Clubs from Hancock, Hagerstown and Boonsboro help along the way.  Members of the groups provide rest and lunch stops for the riders.

Participants come from throughout the country to join the ride.  In addition to Maryland residents, riders from Delaware, Mississippi, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington DC are among the early registrants.

Participants pay a $35 registration fee and raise at least $450 in pledges ($400 for those riding for only the weekend). For those exceeding minimum amounts there are prizes awarded for going above and beyond.  In the 20 years the event has been held, participants have raised nearly $800,000.

For more about TGBT, including on-line registration, go to www.TGBT.org or call Dan Day, San Mar director of development, at 301-733-9067, ext. 101 

San Mar has served thousands of local children since its founding in 1883 as the Washington County Home for Orphans and Friendless Children. 

Today San Mar Children's Home operates three residential group homes, a shelter and a treatment foster care program on its 60-acre campus near Boonsboro.  The residential programs are for adolescent girls, ages 13 to 18, who have experienced family problems and/or abuse, or who are in the juvenile service system due to behavioral problems or other issues.

Treatment foster care places at-risk boys and girls, and children with other problems with foster families throughout the area.