NORTH Over 100 people signed up for the 14th annual Wheels of Love charity bike ride during the first three days of registration, which opened at the beginning of this month.Hundreds of bikers from around the country and the world are expected to attend this year’s ride to raise money for the capital’s Alyn Orthopedic Hospital and Rehabilitation Center, which specializes in pediatric and adolescent rehabilitation. The fiveday event will start on Sunday morning, October 27, in Emek Hefer and will end late Thursday, October 31, in Jerusalem.As soon as spring arrived, participants began training for the event, which offers four different routes: on-road, on-road challenge, sightseeing, and off-road.Participants who don’t feel up to the five-day challenge may opt for a day-long bike ride, termed “GalgAlyn,” on the final day of the event. The cyclists will, inter alia, travel through Binyamina, Zichron Ya’acov, the Lower Galilee, Gilboa, Lake Kinneret, the Beit She’an Valley and Latrun. They will all end their trips in Jerusalem, where they will meet children from Alyn.Many companies will send delegations to take part in the event, and hundreds of businessmen, celebrities and CEOs of leading companies are expected to participate in the final day. Also taking part in the event are “Alyn graduates” – teens and adults who have completed their rehabilitation process at the hospital.Galilee group invites visitors to explore Druse, Circassian villages The Galilee Development Authority and North Tourism Center are offering guided tours of Druse and Circassian villages in the Galilee and Carmel free of charge over the spring and summer months. A local professional guide who is familiar with both the known and the hidden treasures of the villages will be leading the tours, which provide a glimpse into the communities’ culture, characteristics and customs.The tours will take place every weekend during May, June and July, each week focusing on a different village.The visiting groups will be kept small, and it is necessary to register in advance.CENTER TA refuses to name street after Tommy Lapid The Tel Aviv municipality last week refused city councilman Reuven Ladianski’s request to name a street in the city after late politician Yosef (Tommy) Lapid. The municipality’s naming committee approved six street signs honoring six people who contributed to the city, including late minister Avner Shaki, basketball coach Ralph Klein and soccer coach Ya’akov Grundman.June 1 marks five years since the death of former deputy prime minister and justice minister Lapid, who was a Tel Aviv resident for some 60 years. At the city council meeting last week, Ladianski renewed his request – which he originally filed over two years ago – to name a street after Lapid.Following the committee’s rejection, Ladianski, chairman of the Let Live faction, appealed the decision.“I would like to note that I never knew the late Mr. Lapid, I never met him, nor did I vote for his party Shinui. The course of the man’s life and his great contribution to Israeli society, the State of Israel and the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, led me to approach you,” the councilman wrote in his appeal to the committee, noting that Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai had ignored his request for two years.Ladianski also pointed out that in March 2011, the street Nova 30 in the Veternik suburb of Novi Sad – Lapid’s birthplace and the second-largest city in Serbia – was renamed Tomija Josefa Lapida.“But apparently to the Tel Aviv municipality, the matter is not important enough,” he chided.LGBT photographic campaign launched in Tel Aviv The Aguda – The Israeli National LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) Task Force is launching the NOH8 Campaign on Friday in Tel Aviv with an open photo shoot.The NOH8 Campaign – which began in the US – is a charitable organization that aims to promote marriage, gender and human equality through education, advocacy, social media and visual protest. Created by celebrity photographer Adam Bouska, the initiative manifests its goals through photographic silent protest.Friday’s photo shoot is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. and to end at 4 p.m. at the Aguda center on 28 Nahmani Street.Organizers requested that anyone wishing to join the shoot wear a plain white shirt to match the look of the signature NOH8 Campaign. Participation costs NIS 100 per person. The funds will go toward promoting and raising awareness for marriage equality and anti-discrimination, through NOH8’s interactive media campaign; a portion of proceeds will go toward the Nir Katz Center for LGBT Violence Prevention.Marine police save woman trapped in sea Maritime police officers rescued a 19-year-old woman from drowning in the sea at Tel Aviv’s Bograshov Beach last weekend after her leg became trapped between some rocks.The police were called to the scene in the evening on receiving a report that a girl was drowning. As they approached the shore, they saw a number of youths standing on the breakwater, waving and calling for help. The officers then spotted the woman, who was trapped under the water while the waves smashed her against the rocks.One of the officers jumped into the sea, released the woman’s leg and pulled her out of the water. She was then transferred to the care of Magen David Adom paramedics who were waiting on the beach.After they treated her at the scene, they took her to Ichilov Hospital for further treatment.Four arrested over Bnei Brak attack and mugging Police arrested four suspects last weekend in connection with the attack and mugging of a man in a Bnei Brak park. The four suspects allegedly tied the victim up with a rope, beat him and stole hundreds of shekels and his cellphone before fleeing the scene.The victim was taken to the hospital for medical attention, and the suspects were arrested after police conducted searches in the area.Police were investigating the circumstances of the incident.SOUTH Construction starts on Ramon Int. Airport A cornerstone-laying ceremony last week marked the start of construction on the Ramon International Airport in Timna, 19 kilometers north of Eilat.The latter city’s Mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevi described the occasion as “one of the most exciting events of my life as a mayor of Eilat.” He also noted that the establishment of the new airport would dramatically change the city, in particular by boosting the tourist industry, which he said would improve the quality of life for Eilat residents.“Israel’s roots are in Eilat, and they therefore must be watered, in order for the entire country to blossom,” Halevi asserted.The airport is named after the country’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who died in the fatal Columbia space shuttle mission in 2003, and his son Asaf Ramon, who was killed in an IAF training incident in 2009.The new airport will cost an estimated NIS 1.7 billion to build and is expected to be operational in four years. It will replace the existing airports of Ovda and Eilat and will include a light rail that will transport passengers to downtown Eilat. Other planned features include a logistics center, a park-and-ride and a bus station to replace the Eilat central bus station.The airport is expected to spark a 300-percent increase in tourism to the South, with an anticipated 1.5 million travelers arriving on both international and domestic flights each year.WIZO day-care center opens at BGU A WIZO day-care center opened at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev last week, for the use of faculty, staff and student families. The center, a joint initiative of WIZO and the university’s administration, is named Beit Fanny, after Fanny Cohen, a committed WIZO supporter from Venezuela.The center was dedicated in the presence of Cohen and her family, honorary WIZO world president Helena Glaser, chairwoman of the World WIZO executive Prof. Rivka Lazovsky, BGU president Prof.Rivka Carmi, steering committee chairwoman Prof. Andrea Berger, Deputy Mayor Rabbi Gadi Mazuz and other dignitaries.The new fortified day-care center, the first of its kind in Beersheba, is located next to the Marcus Family Campus. It will comprise four classrooms for 112 children between the ages of six months and three years. The first class of mixed ages will open this month, and the center will become fully operational in September. Services including educational, enrichment, and cultural programs will be available to the children.
