Kiwanis bike challenge aids children’s charities

Most of the riders understand that they are contributing toward the community and helping the community.”

Leslie Kle, cyclist, Glen Cove

Eddie Giron last rode the Nassau County Bicycle Challenge, which winds through Sea Cliff, Glen Cove, Bayville, Oyster Bay, Glen Head, and Locust Valley, in 2015. He was new to cycling and nervous.

“It was nerve-racking because I had never ridden before, but it was great, aside from the giant hills that you’ve got to do,” said Giron, 48, of Holtsville.

Giron returned to the Challenge for the first time in nine years on June 30, one of 70-plus riders to take part in the event, a North Shore Kiwanis Club fundraiser for children’s charities.

The Challenge “supports the children’s charities that we’re focusing on,” said Club President Roger Hill, of Glen Cove. “Kiwanis is an international organization that’s for supporting children, each community on its own.”

The ride, he noted, “helps us bring the community together…for those children in need.”

The North Shore Kiwanis is a chapter of Kiwanis International. Among the charitable endeavors that the ride supports are Kiwanis’s Klothes for Kids, for which club members take children in need to J.C. Penny to shop for clothes, and Kicks 4 Kids, which provides new tennis to children.

As well, the event supports the Kiwanis Club’s many food drives.

Leslie Kle, of Glen Cove, a North Shore Kiwanis Club board member and organizer of this year’s Challenge, said, “Most of the riders understand that they are contributing toward the community and helping the community.”

The Challenge is the North Shore Kiwanis Club’s second largest fundraiser of the year after the Sea Cliff Mini Mart, an annual arts and crafts exposition held the first Sunday of October.

Dan Conroy, 56, of New Hyde Park, said, “I just like to bike, and [the Challenge] is for a good cause. I bike every Sunday anyway, so why not do it for children’s charity? It’s a lot of fun, so long as it doesn’t rain.”

The Challenge marked its 28th year in 2024. For its first 24 years, it was known as the Nassau to Suffolk Bicycle Challenge, but since 2022 has been simply called the Nassau County Bicycle Challenge. Tom DeStio, whose son was born prematurely with multiple health issues, began the Challenge as a way to do good for children and to pay homage to the Kiwanis Club, as his son was cared for in the critical care unit at the Kiwanis Pediatric Trauma Center at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in Queens.

There are two routes to the Challenge: one, a 35-mile route, and the other, a 25-miler. For more information, click here.