By:Chris Munzing
Steve Blumenfeld, a 15-year-old sophomore at Long Beach High School, came up with an answer a little different than the usual "go to the beach" and "sleep." On August 4, Blumenfeld will hop on his mountain bike and pedal 300 miles across the Canadian province of Quebec.
Why Quebec? Why not? Blumenfeld says. "It's just interesting to see another culture up close," he said, sitting in his bedroom in his Lido Beach home. "And they have one of the longest bike trails around."
Aside from a picturesque ride through unknown territory, Blumenfeld will be attempting to raise $10,000 for Stand Up For Kids, a nonprofit organization formed in 1990 to provide aid to homeless and runaway teens. The group has street outreach teams that offer homeless teens counseling, food and care packages. The teams also provide assistance in finding housing or jobs if the teens request it.
The organization also educates children in elementary and middle school on the options facing them if they are having trouble at home. The kids are taught that no matter what their situation is, running away is never the answer, and there is always someone who can help them.
Last year, Blumenfeld was looking for opportunities to volunteer, and came across Stand Up For Kids, one of the few organizations that would allow a 14-year-old to work for it. Since then Blumenfeld has helped Stand Up for Kids, a West Coast operation, expand to the East Coast by providing Internet support and Web design.
Using his Web skills, Blumenfeld has also helped set up recruitment drives for other young volunteers. And he decided to dramatically increase the level of his contribution earlier this year.
Originally, his bike ride was to b part of a youth hostel bike tour. But when another volunteer's walk along the Appalachian Trail to raise money fell through, Blumenfeld seized the opportunity. "It dawned on me that if I couldn't help the promotion last year, I might as well be the promotion this year," he said. "Lots of young people are starting to get involved, and it's a great thing for everyone."
To train for the ride, Blumenfeld, who started taking biking seriously last year, has been riding almost nonstop on the boardwalk. But training for the distance is only half the battle. "I'm going to be camping out every night," Blumenfeld said of a journey that is expected to take about two weeks. "So I've got to start training with a 40-pound pack on my back."
"He's always looking to do more, and you don't often see that in a young man his age," said Rick Koca, founder and CEO of Stand Up For Kids.
Blumenfeld and Stand Up have set up several Web sites soliciting donations and pledges for his ride. The goal of $10,000 can be used in a variety of ways. Some funds will go to outreach programs, care packages and the bare essentials necessary for homeless teens to survive, according to Koca. A portion of the money will also help provide Southern California kids in grades 3 through 8 with plastic cards imprinted with the phone numbers of police and child-abuse hotlines.
"If the kids have the cards, they know that wherever they are, they can call someone 24 hours a day," Koca said. "Kids that are being abused or get thrown out of their houses might not know where they can turn. We're hoping these cards can help them find assistance." Koca added that while the card program is starting in Southern California, he hopes that, eventually, kids across the country will have them.
Blumenfeld's ride will bring some publicity to a problem that many people don't know exists. "I wanted to bring awareness to the amount of homeless teens there are out there," he said. "We're hoping to raise this money, and we're hoping it'll get us some more volunteers."
Volunteering for the organization, and seeing the things that some teens have to go through, has given Blumenfeld some new perspective on his good fortune. "Here I am going on this trip, and there are people my age living in alleys and sleeping on the street," he said. "If I can help them by just riding a bike, then I should do whatever I can."
