Yogish Bhat flags off MAD’s fund raiser cycling expedition

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Aug 7, 2011: MLA Yogish Bhat flagged off Tour de Difference 2011, a cycling expedition organized by Make a Difference (MAD), a network of young volunteers, to raise funds for the education of underprivileged children at City Centre today.

 

Moideen Bawa, the owner of Mangalore United Cricket Team; Dr. Anand Venugopal, the professor of radiology at KMC Mangalore; and Samim Rizwi, the internationally acclaimed cyclist, were also present on the occasion.

Five MAD volunteers Raichand, Sebastian Thele, Phillip Bongartz, Sudith Xavier, and Prashanth Reddy will cycle to Mangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Chennai, Vellore, Bangalore, Mysore, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram, and Cochin, covering a total distance of 4240kms during August and September. Phillip Bongartz and Sebastian Thele have flown all the way from Germany just to participate in this cycling expedition.

Called Tour de Difference, the expedition aims to raise Rs. 100 every kilometer covered by the cyclists to raise funds to purchase Cambridge syllabus textbooks for 300 children supported by the Mangalore Chapter of MAD.

MAD, in collaboration with Cambridge University Press, empowers poor kids by educating them. It has around 1000 volunteers teaching 3,500 poor children in major South Indian cities. Tour de Difference will be back in Mangalore on September 23. MAD Mangalore and City Centre will also organize a 3-day event called Go Mad on Aug 6 – 8.