Barb Lemmel and Mitchell Hay are “pedaling” an idea they hope folks in the New England Conference will support.

They will be bicycling the 180 miles from Essex Center, VT, to the New England Annual Conference session in Manchester, NH, to raise money for Imagine No Malaria. They'll make the trip in two days, June 16-17, with an overnight in White River Junction. 

The couple has been biking for years (“Before our children were born, most of our vacations were bicycle-based,” Hay said.), but began training for this ride about three weeks ago. Their longest ride so far, was 70 miles over Smugglers Notch, Lemmel said.

“We did this kind of thing in Troy Conference, to raise money for Africa University,” she said. “It's fun, and a good way to get in shape for the summer.”
Hay, who is pastor of the Essex Center UMC, said the church has been focusing recently on hands-on mission work.

“We’ve been concentrating on that, and have not done a whole lot with Imagine No Malaria, so we thought this would be a good opportunity to stick our big toe in the water,” he said.

If you would like to support the ride, checks can be made out to Essex Center UMC, with "Imagine No Malaria" in the memo line and mailed to P.O. Box 8074, Essex, VT 05451-8074 or to make a donation online, visit their gofundme site: http://www.gofundme.com/vzma2tc