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Published Tuesday, October 07, 2008 in Local

Photo by Jeffrey Leo

Bicycle enthusiasts set out on the Lewis Grizzard and Catfish Memorial Bike Ride to benefit the Ferst Foundation for Child Literacy Sunday morning in Moreland.

Ferst Foundation ride helps get children reading

By Brenda Pedraza-Vidamour

The Times-Herald

The Ferst Foundation benefit Lewis Grizzard and Catfish Memorial Bike Ride through several of Coweta's picturesque small towns Sunday was a first for Ferst, and riders are already looking forward to the annual event again next year.

About 150 riders participated in the bicycle ride, a fundraiser for the Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy. The organization provides free books to children from birth to 5 years old.

The bike ride with three routes including a 66-mile option -- that began in Moreland and meandered through Grantville, Bear Creek Farms, Turin, Senoia and Sharpsburg -- was resurrected this year as a fundraiser for Ferst to help the organization buy books for the registered children in the program.

The ride was started in 1994 as a fundraiser of the Newnan-Coweta Chamber of Commerce and honored the memory of one of Moreland's famous sons, the late newspaper columnist Lewis Grizzard. Catfish was his beloved Labrador retriever. Grizzard often wrote about Moreland in his nationally-syndicated columns.

"We have about 2,000 children receiving books each month so this will allow us to continue to provide the books to the children, and open up the registration for more kids," said Anne Josey, executive director of Certified Literacy is Coweta's Key, a local literacy group.

Parents who register their children receive a free book each month for their child, and books are age appropriate for the child. Parents can register for the program online at ferstfoundation.org or by accessing the state organization's link at Coweta County's Ferst chapter at cowetaferst.org.

Ferst raised about $26,000 from the sponsorships and another $4,000 from registrations from this year's bicycle ride.

"It was a tremendous success for our first time," Josey said. "We raised about $30,000. It was a great sponsorship opportunity for local businesses and a great way to showcase Coweta County."

Janie Lore, director of Brewton-Parker College's Newnan campus, said Coweta Ferst and the Coweta Community Foundation have been working on the event for about five months. Coweta Ferst is delighted over the ride's first-year success as a collaborative event.

"The ride was incredible," she said. "This is the first time we really had a signature fundraiser. We pay about $3 for a book, and there are 8,000 children in the county who are 5 years old and under. So we would slowly like to build to that number."

Since October is a great month to ride and many of the riders are constantly looking for enjoyable rides, Lore and other Ferst volunteers distributed "save the date" magnets to remind participants of next year's event, which will be held on Oct. 4, 2009. Lore explained many participants, some from Alabama and other areas of Georgia, like to mark their schedules ahead of time to take in their favorite rides.

"We got so much positive feedback on the three different rides they could take," she said. Riders on the "Ferst Annual" Lewis Grizzard and Catfish Memorial Ride were able to choose between a 12-mile, 25-mile or 66-mile route.

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