Ride for Refugees to offer 'Spring RIDE Date' in 2010

May 16, 2009 - For cities in Canada, USA and Australia who prefer to host the Ride for Refugees event earlier in the year, International Teams Canada recently announced a May 15th, 2010 Spring RIDE date.

Mika Takamaki, Director of RIDE site development commented on the new offering in a recent phone discussion:

"The RIDE date in October has worked very well and many of our site locations prefer that timing. But, this May 15th date will give more cities the flexibility to chose a date that works best for them. Fall or Spring - they can choose. Cities like Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary will embrace the warmer weather I'm sure."

For 2009 the RIDE changed its date from the third to first Saturday in October. For a number of years the event had skirted some bad weather issues and organizers didn't want to wake up to the snow they faced during the 2006 RIDE or the cold wind during the 2007 event.

Takamaki talked about the decision to move the date this year:

"I was talking to Brian, our RIDE Chair and I said to him, 'The fact is, if there is bad weather on October 3rd most people will shrug it off and chalk it up to poor timing; but if the weather is bad on October 18th, they'll look at us and ask what were we thinking!' "

For more information go to www.rideforrefugees.com