Bike4Friendship Cross Country Tour Comes Full Circle

A little over a year ago Zalmi Perlman was having pizza with a friend in Jerusalem when they came up with the idea to bicycle across the United States to benefit special needs children.

While that friend backed out, Perlman, of Sherman Oaks managed to recruit two of his buddies — Dani Saul and Shmuel Rothstein — to join the pilgrimage. Then he contacted Friendship Circle International to propose the idea.

The Friendship Circle, which began in 1994, is a Jewish group that operates through Chabad in which teens volunteer to spend time with special needs children.

“The Friendship Circle is a program that provides the most important component that is often missing from the life of a child who is special needs and that is friendship,” said Eli Laber, director of the Conejo Valley Friendship Circle.

The trek for the three 22-year old recent rabbinical school graduates (and two others who followed in a car with water and medical supplies) began on June 26 in Livingston, N.J., and concluded Sunday in Agoura Hills at the Matana Sushi & Grill.

The three actually arrived at Perlman’s home in Sherman Oaks late last week and pedaled to the restaurant Sunday for the official end to their journey.

The riders had planned to finish at Chabad of the Conejo in Agoura Hills, but some renovations forced the move to the restaurant.

Outside the small restaurant, family and Friendship Circle members cheered as the trio rode up. Perlman said his speedometer calculated the trip at around 4,000 miles. They went through 15 states.

The biggest challenges were the heat and the mountains, but ultimately they had a common purpose, to raise money and awareness for the disabled children, said Perlman.

“Truthfully, I think we got more out if than they did,” Perlman said. “It changed our lives.”

“It really showed us we are all the same,” Saul said. “The Friendship Circle teaches to focus on the inside of the person. But also, while biking, it’s amazing to go out into the world and see how incredible people really are.”

“I also learned that if there is a will, there is a way,” Rothstein said. “Whatever you want to do can be done. It became a matter of when we’re going to get there and we can do it, not so much are we going to make it?”

“As a lesson in life, for anything, and specifically for this trip, we just took it one step at a time,” said Saul. “Today we are going from point A to point B. If we were going 120 miles that day, then we’d say, ‘OK, let’s get to the 10-mile rest stop,’ and then it was, ‘OK, we’ll go to the next 10-mile rest stop,’ so we took things step by step.’ When you take things step by step, the whole picture doesn’t look as big.”

The route was meticulously planned so they would bike about 100 miles a day and attempt to land at a Chabad on the Sabbath. In every city they stopped, they met with mayors and townspeople to talk about the program and ask for pledges. The trip expenses were provided by the Friendship Circle, but they have raised close to $10,000 in pledges for the Friendship Circle so far.

“If we do this next year — and we’re talking about it — we would probably go from west coast to east coast because we would be going with the wind and not against it, which would make a huge difference,” Perlman said. “Also, we would go more northern and not southern, which would cut off some miles. Also, maybe we would do it in the spring instead.”

To make donations: http://www.bike4friendship.com