Suttons Bay Rotary member Chet Janik raised money for northern Michigan high school students last week during a bike ride through all six buroughs in New York City.
Six years ago, his son Joel got married in NYC, and while staying at a hotel, Janik and his friend, the late Dennis Colburn, were in the lobby saw a massive crowd of bikes on the streets and said to each other “We got to do this next year.”
Unfortunately, Coburn passed away a year later.
“We never got a chance to do it but in his memory, I always wanted to do it so I did it last year, but this year, it was last minute thing, I said “I’m gonna do it and I thought I’d do it as a fundraiser so I got a sponsorship through the Suttons Bay Rotary Club,” Janik said. “(Coburn’s) spirit was with me the entire ride both last year and this year I could feel him encouraging me because 40 miles is a bit of a hike but it’s a great ideas,” Janik said.
The Coburn’s Challenge initiative will pick up where the initial 1-mile trail around Provemont Pond left off, to create a total of 4.5 miles of trails through the glacier-sculpted slopes and forested lowlands west of Lake Leelanau. Janik calls the park a “hidden gem” of the county.
In 2020, Dennis Coburn, a long-time home builder and outdoor enthusiast, died of cancer. Following his death, friends formed a group and started raising funds for the Provemont Pond trail project. The members of Bike Leelanau, a nonprofit mountain biking group that helps maintain biking trails in Leelanau County, has raised thousands of dollars for the new multi-use trails.
The TD Five Boro Bike Tour is the country’s biggest bike ride; proceeds fund Bike New York’s free bike education programs. Janik travelled through Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Harlem. Suttons Bay Rotary gave Janik a $2,500 sponsorship challenge while raising $2,500 for a total of $5,000 to raise for North Ed Education Foundation for educational services. At the end, Janik raised over $12,000 thanks to local support. Over $8,000 came through the fundraiser and another $4,000 through friends and family.
The scholarships will focus on tools of trade that Traverse City Career Center in partnership to purchase equipment.
“This will help students in Leelanau County and the surrounding counties,” Janik said. “You get 30 to 35,000 people on a bike create a chance for traffic but it’s very well organized. I was very impressed with the number of ... I felt very safe because the traffic is closed off on the streets and nice day of people cheering you. They have a band playing and cheerleaders out there so it’s all keeps you mentally focused and moving forward cause it’s always so much to see and do.”
“(The Suttons Bay Rotary Club) our goal has always been helping the youth of Leelanau County so there’s another example that through their support over $12,000 would be raised to help the youth of the county and the surronding area,” Janik said. “It’s just a unique experience to see New York City from a different angle ... I wore my Leelanau County bike jersey.”
