Approximately $18,000 was raised in the fifth annual Ride for MAC Saturday to buy shoes for Pickens County children and to help Brazilian children.
Lawson Cleary, a leader at co-sponsor Five Point Church, said “I am very pleased by the result.”
In addition to the money raised, the event based in Old Market Square Saturday morning drew an estimated 300 people, including about even numbered of cyclist, 5k participants and volunteer workers.
Shoes are purchased at $15 each for distribution in a Pickens County School.
“There is nothing like kneeling down and putting shoes on the feet of a child,” said Jon Adams, pastor of First Baptist Church Easley, the organization that originated the project. Five Point Church joined the project in 2011.
In the previous four years, Ride for MAC bought 600 pairs of shoes. A portion of the money also goes to an effort in Brazil to take homeless and abused children off the streets. “These children are sexually, physically, mentally and spiritually abused,” Adams said. To date, monies raised in Easley have helped find sanctuary for four Brazilian children.
Five Point Church joined the project along with First Baptist Church in 2011. “We are about as far apart in terms of worship style as any churches could be,” said Adams of the collaboration. “But we are united in Jesus Christ and serving these children.”
Ride for MAC incorporates the acronym Mission, Action, Challenge. The name is also a reference to Mac Lawton, a youth leader at First Baptist Church for more than 15 years. Lawton was honored Saturday with South Carolina’s Order of the Crescent Award for lifetime service to others.
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