Bottoms bike for childhood hunger

Mark and Renae Bottom, formerly of Grant and now of Imperial, recently completed a roughly 230-mile bike tour across southwest Nebraska and northwest Kansas.

Nebraska United Methodist Bike Ride for Hunger (NUMB), celebrating its 23rd year in 2018, is a four-day camping bike tour sponsored by the Great Plains United Methodist Conference Mercy & Justice Team.

The Great Plains United Methodist Conference is based in Topeka, Kansas and covers all of Nebraska and Kansas.

All proceeds are split between four hunger-relief agencies: the Heifer Project, United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), the Food Bank of Lincoln and Food Bank for the Heartland (Omaha) and The Society of St. Andrew.

History of NUMB

On a stormy night during BRAN one year, Rev. Bill Ritter and Greg Bakewell came up with the idea for NUMB.

Ritter had just come from a United Methodist meeting where Nebraska Conference Hunger Committee Chair David Jefferson said how little funding there is for hunger projects supported by the United Methodist Church.

The first NUMB ride was in 1996, but was reformatted to make the ride more friendly to all levels of bikers.

There have been many repeat riders over the years, and people started inviting family and friends along for the ride.

Mark and Renae had two friends from Colorado join them this year. John and Lori Hafnor of Fort Collins, Colorado, joined up with them for the four-day event.

Bottoms on the road

The theme of this year’s tour was “Southern Shores,” which began and ended in McCook.

This was Mark and Renae’s second year riding with NUMB, their first being in 2012.

Like BRAN, NUMB is a camping tour, where riders camp at stops along the way. 

While at a stop in Norton, Kansas, the Bottoms ran into a thunderstorm.

“That was perfect timing for us because that night was a terrible storm but their church is ginormous. Basically everybody got to stay inside that night,” Mark said.

“A few people tried to stay in tents that night but their tents were flying down the street.” 

“It’s truly a family atmosphere,” Renae said.

For a good cause

Anyone interested can take part in this ride, regardless of religious affiliation.

“You don’t have to be United Methodist to ride. It’s just for a good cause,” she added.

However, it is limited to the first 150 riders.

Riders pay a $55 registration fee, and then they must secure a minimum of $100 in pledges to United Methodist Hunger programs. Mark said this can be self-pledged or you can ask for donations.

NUMB has given over $910,000 around the world for those in need since the first tour in 1996.

This year, they raised $60,000.

The last night they sold the rest of the T-shirts “and one gal says ‘I’ll buy those T-shirts for $200’ to get them up to $60,000,” Renae said.

“So it’s just a really great thing for a really great cause so you feel really good going on it,” she added.