A Langley language institute’s annual bike ride fundraiser on July 25 will help students with scholarship dollars.
This is the third year for the local fundraiser, and the second year for Canada Institute of Linguistics (CanIL) president Danny Foster.
Dubbed The Training Ride, the ride from Trinity Western University (TWU) takes riders either 37 or 100 kilometres around Langley.
In the long run, money raised on the ride will send CanIL graduates around the world.
CanIL is based at TWU, and has tracks for students who want to study and work in linguistics generally, as well as those who specifically want to do religiously inspired work with minority language communities, or translate the Bible.
There are hundreds of languages around the world that don’t have a written form, much less books or Bibles, said Foster.
The goal is to raise money for scholarships and bursaries so students in the MA or BA programs won’t go off into the world burdened by a huge debt load.
“People don’t get into this kind of work for the money,” said Foster.
Foster himself will be doing the 100 km version of the Training Ride this year, after doing 37 km last year.
He’s new to lengthy cycling, having previously ridden an old steel bike while he was studying in Bristol, Great Britain a few years ago.
This year he’ll be riding a bike that is both much more advanced and has a special personal connection.
Foster’s friend Mark, the best man at his wedding, passed away in 2012.
Last year Mark’s brother called and asked if Foster wanted Mark’s bike.
The bike is a Trek 3000, a high-end carbon fibre framed vehicle that’s a lot lighter and faster than the old steel bike.
Foster has been training for a while and last weekend did a 70-km ride for the first time.
The ride takes place on Saturday, July 25, with the 100-km ride starting at 6:30 a.m., and the shorter course at 8:30 a.m. Sign up at www.canil.ca/ride. A banquet for riders and families will be held at 12:30 p.m.
The ride starts and finishes at the CanIL building on the Trinity Western University campus at 7600 Glover Rd.