The Cycling Club is funded by the One-to-One Fund and the Abraham Fund and is implemented in partnership with the Shimshon Cycling Club, the Lemitnadev organization, the Beit Shemesh Municipality and the Israel Cycling Association.

On Monday, the first Intermediate Day of Passover (April 21, 2008), we hosted a delegation from Washington that consisted of 6 Bar Mitzvah boys and their families who donated 6 new bicycles along with helmets and accessories (the Bar Mitzvah boys chose to buy bicycles for the Beit Shemesh club from the money they had received for their Bar Mitzvahs).

The project was organized by Partnership 2000 of the Jewish Agency and special thanks go to Amit Zahavi and Gilad Golani (the Jewish Agency emissary in Washington) who helped in making this special event so successful.

The following individuals came an hour early to help in the preparations for the arrival of the delegation: Ben Ohana, Ben Ganon, Yonas Gavriel, Nogas and Avraham Balta, Ilan and Dan Green and Tomer Ben Yair and the following volunteers: Lior Zarka, Ori Hadar, Yisrael Goldstein, Yitzhak Triester, Adi Shamir, Riva Nineo and Dror Halevi.

Together, we brought out the bicycles and helmets, prepared a table of beverages and dried fruit (kosher for Passover) and waited impatiently for the delegation to arrive.

At 16:30 the group arrived at the Shimshon Riders Club directly from the Bar Mitzvah ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. This was their first visit to Beit Shemesh.

Riva, the Partnership 2000 representative, said a few words to begin the activity and following that, I thanked the Bar Mitzvah boys for their unique donation. The kids then handed out certificates in English honoring the donors. Shimshon Riders hats and cycling shirts were then given out and we got ready to ride. But first Adi assigned everyone a number and we all practiced saying it in both English and Hebrew.

We cycled to Mumi Square, the city market and via the Olive Trail to Gefen Park. Adi followed on a bicycle and Uri followed in his car. We stopped to drink and have an energy snack (dried fruit) at the Rose Park and viewed the beautiful scenery and roses there. We returned to the Club via Hashiva and Arlozorov Street.

We put away the bikes and helmets and accompanied the delegation for an ethnic meal at Moshav Gefen (prepared by Bat Sheva Gabai).

Our competitive cycling group rode to Gefen and joined us there for the meal. The rest of the group got to know the guests from Washington using broken English and with the help of sign language and translation by the adults.

The meal served by Bat Sheva was incredible and the guests very much enjoyed the experience. On the way back to Beit Shemesh, the kids in the group sat with the Bar Mitzvah boys and they got to know one another.

This is an example of what Gesher Lekesher is all about - for most of the children in the cycling group this was their first opportunity to meet kids from Washington and the first time they had come to Moshav Gefen to enjoy ethnic food.

Next week, we will meet at 16:00 to ride and then learn about bicycle mechanics.