Habitat 500 will bring 135 bikers to New Ulm

Published 8:57 am Thursday, July 19, 2012

NEW ULM — New Ulm will take in a rush of 135 bikers and 40 volunteers today when the 20th anniversary ride of the Habitat 500 stops in town.

The Habitat 500 is an annual fundraiser by Habitat for Humanity of Minnesota. It involves participants each raising a minimum of $900 to ride, though the average each participants raises is closer to $2,400. This year’s goal is to raise $300,000 to homes for low-income families.

Each biker will participate in a seven-day, six-overnight stop ride around the southern half of Minnesota. Starting in St. Louis Park at the building site of Habitat’s 2,000th home, the route travels through a loop of Hastings, New Prague and Hutchinson before continuing to New Ulm, Mayer and back to St. Louis Park. The group will travel 50 to 100 miles each day, with overnight stops at each of the targeted cities. The group also spent two nights in Hutchinson to work on a super energy-efficient Habitat home.

Email newsletter signup

Since the Habitat 500’s start, the event has raised $4.5 million for Habitat homes.

The majority of the riders will be arriving in New Ulm between 2 and 3 p.m. They will spend the night camping at Vogel Fieldhouse.