The Western States Benefit Bike Ride will tour through the fields and mountains of the Flathead Valley this week to raise funds for relief work in Ukraine, with four days of cycling and a benefit concert headlined by award-winning singer-songwriter Susan Gibson, marking the first time the event has stopped in Montana in its 30-year history. 

The annual cycling fundraiser is put on by the Mennonite Central Committee, the international relief arm of the Mennonite Church in North America. Kalispell's Mountain View Mennonite Church is hosting this year's event and is inviting locals to take part in the ride, said Libbie Lapp, who is co-chairing the ride with her husband Rich. Registration is at the church the morning of each ride and is by donation. 

Over the course of four days, cyclists will see all that the Flathead Valley has to offer, with different route options designed to cater to riders of all abilities. The long routes are 70 to 80 miles per day while the short routes are 30 to 50 miles per day. Participants have the option to switch between route distances each day and can ride in as many or as few of the four days as they want.  

Three of the rides depart from Mountain View Mennonite Church. Riders should plan to arrive at the church before 8 a.m. to sign waivers and prepare lunch. Monday's ride heads south to Bigfork and the Swan Valley, on Tuesday riders bike west to Kila and on Thursday the route meanders north to Columbia Falls and Whitefish. Wednesday is the only day that does not depart from the church, with riders self-transporting to Hungry Horse for a tour around the Hungry Horse Reservoir and Glacier National Park.   

Following each day's ride, there will be evening entertainment at Mountain Valley Mennonite Church, including a Thursday night benefit concert headlined by Susan Gibson, a Texas-based singer-songwriter known for penning the hit Dixie Chicks song "Wide Open Spaces." Other evenings feature a film about the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, a moonlit ride on the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park and an evening presentation on the relief work being conducted by the Mennonite Central Committee.   

The host church selects a project within the Mennonite Central Committee's programs to support with the funds raised at the bike ride, and Mountain View Mennonite Church selected the relief efforts in Ukraine.  

The choice was inspired by a family that attends Mountain View and connected years ago with the New Hope Center in Ukraine, an organization that originally provided vocational training to orphans and at-risk youth and since the war has expanded their reach to include delivering food kits, relocating families and providing emergency relief to the poor.  

With assistance from the Mennonite Central Committee, the center has provided short-term shelter to more than 1,000 displaced people. As Ukraine and Russia continue to trade blows in a war that has dragged on for more than four years, supporting Ukraine made sense, especially given the Mennonite church's long history in the region. 

The Mennonites are a Christian denomination in the Anabaptist tradition who prioritize the peace gospel of Jesus, including service to others, social justice and a commitment to nonviolence. Mennonites are often confused with the Amish, a group that broke away from the Mennonites in the 1600s, and while some Mennonites still wear plain, handmade clothes and speak a German dialect known as "Plattdeutsch," Lapp said that today most Mennonite churches are modern and would be familiar to most American churchgoers.  

The Mennonite Central Committee facilitates the fulfillment of the church's commitment to serving those in need around the world. The committee was originally founded in 1920 to support Mennonite Christians in southern Russia, which is present-day Ukraine.  

A sizable Mennonite population had gathered in Russia after fleeing persecution in Western Europe. The Mennonite denomination formed in Switzerland and Germany in the years immediately following the Protestant Reformation. The Mennonites' Anabaptist ideas, including adult baptism, pacifism and refusal to participate in civil government, were considered radical at the time. Facing persecution from both protestants and Catholics, the Mennonites fled to Russia and to the Americas.  

In the early years of the 20th century, as hunger and disease spread in the wake of the Russian Civil War, Mennonites living in present-day Ukraine wrote desperately to their counterparts in the United States and Canada asking for aid. By 1922, the organization was supplying 25,000 people in southern Russia with bread, cocoa, beans, rice and corn.  

More than 100 years later, the Mennonite Central Committee is at work in more than 40 countries, with a focus on supporting sustainable long-term projects led by locals.  

THE IDEA for the annual bike ride was born more recently, in 1994, after a group of Mennonite bike riders from Oregon happened upon another group of Mennonite cyclists from Pennsylvania during the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, the oldest, largest and longest recreation bike touring event in the world.  

Chatting as they biked across Iowa, the Mennonites bonded over their love for cycling and hatched an idea for a sponsored bike ride to raise money for the Mennonite Central Committee. The Oregonians hosted the inaugural ride and then passed the torch to the Pennsylvanians the following year, establishing the tradition of alternating the bike ride's location each year between the eastern and western United States.  

This is the first year the event will be held in the Flathead Valley, and Lapp is excited to share the landscapes of Northwest Montana with cyclists from all over the western United States. While many of the cyclists are involved with the Mennonite Church, anyone is welcome to join.  

"It's a chance to meet people from all over," Lapp said. "If you want to be fast and get a good workout, you could do that. If you just want to go along for the scenery, they're all spectacular routes as far as the things to see and do." 

All of the funds raised during the Western States Benefit Bike Ride go directly toward supporting the work of the Mennonite Central Committee in Ukraine, according to Lapp. 

More information about the ride can be found at mountainviewmennonite.org/new-page 

Reporter Elsa Ericksen can be reached at 406-758-4459 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.