Baptcare’s inaugural Cycle for Hope is a one-day event traversing about 150 kilometres to Melbourne’s west.

The organisation’s chief executive, Graham Dangerfield, and his fellow cyclists will pedal their way through Sutton Grange, Metcalfe and Kyneton and past Hanging Rock and Mount Macedon as they seek to raise money and awareness of Baptcare’s work with vulnerable community members. 

A program called Home-Start provides struggling families in Greater Bendigo with children under the age of five with support from trained volunteers.

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The volunteers help families forge connections in the community and remedy issues such as isolation and loneliness.

“People are more transient. They don’t know what’s out there,” Home-Start’s Jane Worthington told the Bendigo Advertiser in 2017.

“Often parents will say, I don’t really know any of my neighbours.”

Participants can be self-referred or suggested by Maternal & Child Health nurses, schools, churches, doctors or neighbourhood centres.

RELATED: Bendigo youth living below the poverty line

Baptcare works with children and families, older people, people with disabilities, and people seeking asylum in Victoria and Tasmania.

“I hope to make a difference to a family or a child by giving them a chance to do something that we take for granted every day, like buying new shoes for school, going on a family holiday or taking swim lessons,” Mr Dangerfield said.

“Many of our clients face extreme poverty and hardship daily and I hope to use my passion for cycling to raise awareness on this issue.”

The Cycle for Hope starts at 8am.

Collectively, the participants are more than halfway toward their $30,000 fundraising goal.

For more information or to donate, click here.

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