Ellettsville Christian Church hosted more than 70 cyclists overnight on May 9. The cyclists were five days and 315 miles into the Cover Indiana Bicycle Tour, a seven-day, 360-mile Habitat for Humanity fundraiser.
The tour has raised as much as $60,000 in the past, according to Doug Taylor, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Lafayette.
Eighty-five full-time riders participated this year. Seventy-seven of them made it to Ellettsville from Lafayette, including Ellettsville Christian Church Buildings and Grounds Manager Tim Felton.
Felton, 50, began cycling in 1995. He was part of the Bloomington Bicycling Club when the first routes for the Cover Indiana Bicycle Tour were planned 11 years ago.
“I had a pickup load of junk. It’s a unique challenge to MacGyver things together,” Felton said.
He used that gear to keep all the participants going. He still does. He buys tubes, cables and other parts in bulk every year for incidents that occur on the road. He sets up a repair stand to fix other cyclists’ bicycles at the end of each day.
“Several nights this week, I’ve been on the repair stand until after midnight just to keep the group rolling,” he said. “I’ll be out here working on bikes in a wheelchair.”
At 315 miles, Felton mostly sees squeaky drivetrains, broken spokes, and malfunctioning shifters.
But the tour is more to Felton than a chance to indulge his hobbies. He grew up in poverty housing in Solsberry, Indiana.
“Until the ’70s, I lived in a log cabin with no running water,” he said.
Felton brought the tour to Ellettsville five years ago.
“Working (at Ellettsville Christian Church), I was terrified to even ask because I know how big this group is,” he said. “We couldn’t find other churches in the area that were willing to take on 100 people. It interrupts daycare. Literally, daycare closed today just to accommodate us. That was a very kind gesture from the church.”
Hosts are required to feed the cyclists. Felton raises money for the food every year. Volunteers from the church make dinner and breakfast. But this year was different. Preparation for finals at Ivy Tech Community College kept Felton from raising money, so he donated $400 for the food. Another member of the Ellettsville Christian Church congregation donated $100.
“It’s an emotional thing for me. To see somebody inspired that you think is really going to fail and they thrive at this,” Felton said. “It becomes part of their lifestyle, both cycling and (Habitat for Humanity’s) all about – all our little collective efforts.”
“It’s a lot of fun. It’s really become a time of seeing old friends,” Taylor said. “It’s something a lot of us look forward to. It’s kind of like the feeling you get before Christmas when you’re a kid.”
Cyclists ride from Lafayette to Crawfordsville on the first day; Crawfordsville to Terre Haute on the second day; Terre Haute to Linton on day three; Linton to Bedford on day four; Bedford to Ellettsville on the fifth day; Ellettsville to Plainfield on the sixth day; and finish with a ride from Plainfield to Indianapolis.
Habitat for Humanity provides interest-free home loans to those suffering poverty in exchange for 250 hours of help building homes for others. Cyclists participating in the Cover Indiana Bicycle Tour designate the Habitat for Humanity for which they raise money.
Felton said the arrangement is a “dignified” way for people to receive assistance.
“That’s one of the biggest things I think this achieves,” he said.
Originally published in Ellettsville Journal, 2013. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.