Zoey Duncan
While children here are enjoying the first weeks of summer holidays, there are countless more around the world who dream of the chance to learn.
Education is the route out of poverty, both in Canada and around the world—a fact well-known to the latest cyclist to pass through Fort Frances on a cross-Canada fundraising tour.
“I was raised by a single mom and we did not have a lot,” said Ilan Levy, who parked his bike here last Thursday night.
“One of the things that she kept drilling into me was education was the way out of poverty,” he recalled.
“And she, over the years, got an education herself,” Levy added. “She finished a Master’s degree, and it was completely clear that I would do the same and it’s certainly paid off.”
Now, Levy is biking across the country to help raise funds for “Making Education Possible,” a project of national charity SchoolBox Inc.
The project aims to raise $100,000 to build eight classrooms, as well as provide basic and essential school supplies, for impoverished children in Nicaragua.
Levy visited the Central American country prior to pedalling out of Victoria on June 7.
He watched as the organization operated on a shoestring budget, passing along its resources to the families it seeks to help.
There, Levy got a vivid picture of the people he would be helping.
“This is the only way these kids will get out of poverty,” he stressed. “And you see some of the poverty and it is unbelievable.
“No electricity, no running water, open sewage.
“Really ramshackle residences [where they] are basically squatters, and yet they will do whatever they can to send their kids to school,” Levy noted.
“Cycle 4 SchoolBox” is one-third of the way towards its fundraising goal as Levy was back on the road Friday morning en route to Shabaqua.
The funds have been filled out so far by donations of all sizes, from the $10 bill he received from a mom in Manitoba, who said it was much better than spending it on a planned ice cream treat at the local gas station, to two Calgary donors who each wrote cheques for $2,500.
Levy noted the education packets that are essential for a Nicaraguan child to attend school cost only $5, and include notebooks, pencils, an eraser and sharpener, and a protractor.
To follow Levy’s trip or to donate, visit cycle4schoolbox.com