ommunity

Left: Riders take time to hold Shachrit
services on a hilltop at Shaharut.

On Wheels For Ki

n Hospital in Jerusalem bene its from cycling fundraiser.

Alyn Hospital, set in suburban
Jerusalem, specializes in the active
and intensive rehabilitation of chil-
dren and adolescents with a
broad range of physical disabilities.
Founded in 1932, it is the only
facility of its kind in Israel.
With an individualized multidis-
ciplinary approach, the aim is to
ensure that every child and adoles-
cent reaches his or her maximum
potential.
Children treated at Alyn, regard-
less of religious or ethnic origin,
include those suffering from any
form of motor or sensory deficit,
respiratory insufficiency, or com-
municative, cognitive or behavioral
disorder. These problems may be
congenital or acquired, including
victims of road accidents, severe
burns and brain stem or spinal cord
tumors.
Alyn and its 265 employees treat
more than 5,000 children. The
hospital has 93 in-patient beds and
100 more for day patients.
Alyn's name is an acronym for
Agudah Le'ezrat Yeladim Nachim,
meaning Organization to Aid
Handicapped Children. In English,
its name stands for All the Love
You Need.

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN

Staff Writer

D

isturbances in Israel convinced organizers of
a fundraiser to move their bike-riding event
instead to Spain, just three weeks before it
was scheduled to roll. Sixty-seven of the reg-
istered cyclists from the United Kingdom decided to
follow the new route, leaving only 10 with the resolve
to go on as scheduled in the Jewish state.
"At this short notice, we 10 riders based in Israel set
up our own ride from scratch," says Geoffrey Freeman,
an amateur bike rider. He emigrated to Netanya, Israel,
from the United Kingdom in 1996.
The five-day ride in November ended up raising
money for the children of Alyn Woldenberg Family
Hospital Pediatric and Adolescent Rehabilitation Center
in Kiryat Hayovel, a suburb of Jerusalem.
"A completely new trip was set up with accommoda-
tion, mechanic and security all organized," Freeman
says.

Detroit Friends Of Alyn

Back home, the 10-year-old Detroit Friends of Alyn
Hospital is overseen by president Gina Horwitz of West
Bloomfield, Holding annual fund-raising events, donations
made locally help support the Israeli hospital.
For information on the Detroit Friends of Alyn
Hospital, to become involved with the chapter, to make a
donation or purchase tribute cards, call (248) 559-ALYN.

The Children
OfAlyn

—

One of two ather-and-son teams in the Alyn ride were
Chaim an t Yonatan Zlotogorski of Jerusalem.

The riders started out Nov. 5 at the hospital, with
nearly 50 of its kindergarten-age patients parading to
music and song and waving off the determined group.
"Loads of children excitedly milled around [the
cyclists and] their bicycles," says Brenda Hirsch, director
of public relations and development for the hospital.
Acting as coordinator between the riders and Alyn, she
also organized a farewell breakfast in the hospital audi-
torium.
Heading southwest out of Jerusalem, Freeman says
the 450-kilometer ride included "one monotonous
stretch" and "a long hard climb" into the southern port
of Eilat," the final destination. But the thought of
Alyn's young patients stayed with participants as they
rode.

Shelli Liebman Dorfman

"The memory of these children,
some with horrific physical disabili-
ties, was inspiration enough to keep
us going even up the steepest hills
and against the strongest winds,"
Freeman says.
The $60,000 raised from the rid-
ers' sponsors will go toward caring
for young patients. The children's
treatment, Hirsch says, "often costs
more than what the hospital
receives." With the event's success,
she says Alyn plans to sponsor an
annual bike-riding fundraiser.
Hirsch found the visiting cyclists'
presence an inspiration, saying: "It was
just such a wonderful, heartwarming
event in the midst of such pain, frus-
tration and despair at the situation in
which Israel finds itself" LI

Rti

\1

12/8
2000

43

