T&D Staff Report

More than $2,000 was collected for gang intervention programs during the inaugural bike ride sponsored by the Orangeburg County Gang Intervention Project 2020.

"We see this as a good start," said Orangeburg Department of Public Safety Chief Wendell Davis. "Our goal is to raise funds for the gang awareness initiative."

A cooperative between community leaders and law enforcement, the project focuses on three levels of prevention -- awareness and intervention, showing alternatives to those in gangs and, lastly, jail.

Davis said the money raised from the Nov. 8 ride and other fund-raisers will go toward billboards and anti-gang pamphlets in the upcoming year.

Beginning at Edisto Memorial Gardens, riders participated in three different course lengths, including a 27-mile jaunt, a 50-mile ride and a 100-mile ride, which turned around at the River's Bridge State Historic Site in lower Bamberg County.

Cyclists from around the state participated in the fund-raiser, Davis said.

"We had a draw from all over the state," Davis said. "One by-product was the people enjoyed the route. They enjoyed riding through Orangeburg. Going through Cordova and Bamberg was great."

The ride was supported by the Bamberg and Ehrhardt police departments, the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office, GNC and the William J. McCord Center.

The field of more than 50 riders was paced by a bike dealer from Columbia who was followed closely by a Charleston rider.

"But the 70-year-old (Charleston man) came in second," Davis said. "He was right on his back wheel."

Plans are to make the fund-raising bike ride an annual part of the program's campaign against gangs.

For more information about donating to the program or participating in next year's ride, contact the ODPS at 803-533-5924.

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