Metro
To Hell And Back
Cyclists plan special ride to benefit P'TACH programs.
SUSAN TAWIL
Oak Park Police Officer
bent Koch keeps safe watch
the P'TACH riders.
Special to the Jewish News
W
fIN
7/21
2005
22
e'll go to Hell and back for
P'TACH," said Heshy
Josephs of Oak Park.
The Southfield-based Lawrence
Technological University engineering
professor, 68, was referring to the 100-
mile bike ride planned for Sunday, July
31.
Destination: Hell, Michigan.
The ride will help raise funds for the
Detroit branch of P'TACH (Parents for
Torah for All CHildren), a national
organization that provides special educa-
tion for Jewish students with learning
disabilities.
The local P'TACH chapter, founded
in 1979, now serves more than 60 stu-
dents, with resource room programs at
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah, Beth Jacob
School, Yeshivas Darchei Torah and
Yeshivat Akiva. Tutoring is offered to
students in grades K-12 in both secular
and religious subjects, with individual
educational plans tailored to each child.
"Our dedicated and highly profession-
al stnifhelps the children grow and learn
by building on their strengths and reme-
diating their weaknesses," said Bette
Josephs, founder and educational direc-
tor of P'TACH (and Heshy's wife).
She notes that the program receives no
government funding and thus relies sole-
ly on parental tuition and communal
support to cover its budget.
The fund-raising bike rides are the
brainchild of Heshy Josephs, P'TACH
board chairman and a biking enthusiast
who last month pedaled to Chicago to
deliver a paper at an engineering confer-
ence and visit his grandchildren.
A practice "mini-PTACH bike-a-
thon" was held July 17, when 25 local
riders did a five-mile stint from the
Jewish Community Center in Oak Park
to the Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak and
back. Noah Adler, 7, of Southfield was
the youngest biker, accompanying his
father, radiologist Dr. Avi Adler, who
rode with his 4-year-old son, Ethan, in
tow in an attached child seat.
Noah said the ride was hard, but fun.
"We passed through nice neighbor-
hoods," he said.
Bikers wore "Pedaling for P'TACH"
caps and were accompanied by a police
escort to halt traffic when they crossed
41144 N
tg;. 1
Front row: Tzvi Lorkis, 14, Benyamin Sherizen, 8, Betzalel Berkman, 10.
Back row: Aryeh Sherizen, 16, and Ron Schreiber. All are of Oak Park.
Coolidge. Water bottles and snacks were
provided, and a short biker safety lesson
was given before the trip.
A handful of stalwart riders continued
on after the zoo ride to complete a 20-
mile bike ride through northern
Oakland County.
Last year, Josephs organized a bike
ride to Kensington Metro Park near
Milford. Howard Sherizen of Oak Park,
a participant in many bike-a-thons for
various charitable causes, said that ride
Avi Smith of Southfield gets ready to ride with
Cobi, 21/2.
was the worst he'd ever done. Sherizen, a
chartered financial consultant with
MassMutual Financial Group, said the
weather that day was icy wind and pour-
ing rain.
"The ride was hell," he said. "So this
year, we decided to make it official and
actually go to Hell."
The Kensington ride was 100 kilome-
ters, or 62 miles. This year's P'TACH
ride will be substantially longer: 100
miles. "Going to Hell will be a lot eas-
ier than coming back," Sherizen said.
How true. ❑
To join the P'TACH Pedalers'
Bike Ride to Hell, or for further
information regarding P'TACH
programs, call Heshy Josephs at
(248) 399-6281 or Howard
Sherizen at (248) 208-2748.