(Featured image: A Boys and Girls Club of Greater Augusta member stares at his new bike courtesy of Southern Nuclear employees. Charmain Z. Brackett/Augusta Good News)
A bicycle ride to raise funds for cancer research will have 10 new participants thanks to a donation Oct. 5.
This is the second year that Southern Nuclear employees have teamed up with the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Augusta to donate bikes in time for the annual PaceDay, a bike ride to raise money for the Georgia Cancer Center.
Southern Nuclear employees donated 10 bicycles and helmets to club members. They will ride in the one-mile Cyber City Circuit on Oct. 15 in downtown Augusta as part of PaceDay.
“It was a great experience for them last year,” said Kim Evans, CEO & President, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Augusta, who then turned her attention to the children receiving the bikes. “I can’t wait for you to participate. I think you will have a great time.”
Funds for the bikes came from Southern Nuclear’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Program and volunteers from Southern Nuclear built the bicycles at the HUB for Community Innovation prior to giving them to the children.
“We are super grateful,” Evans said.
Martyn Jones, Paceline president, said the donation and collaboration reflects the mission of the event.
“It really is in the true spirit of a community movement to cure cancer. That’s the driving force,” he said.
PaceDay has with several different courses. There’s the closed course in downtown, but there are also open road events of 25, 50 and 70 miles. Nearly 450 people are scheduled to ride in the event that has a goal of $500,000.
Jon Scull, maintenance director at Southern Nuclear’s Vogtle 3, called the collaboration a wonderful opportunity.
“Southern Nuclear, as a whole, is known for delivering power to people who need it and here was a chance we could deliver power to those who really deserve it,” he said.
Since 2019, Paceline has raised more than $1 million through PaceDay and distributed that money in the form of grants to researchers at the Georgia Cancer Center.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News, has covered Augusta’s news for 35 years. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
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