Past Events

Covid-19 has played havoc in all senses this year and, for a few months, impacted our ability to test the eyes of young learners and supply glasses to those in need. It also resulted in the cancellation of the 947 Ride Joberg Cycle Race, our biggest fundraising initiative every year. Fortunately we are able to survive financially through these tough times but we still wanted to engage with our loyal riders and supporters.

It was decided to host a LumoHawk Foundation MTB training weekend in the place of the 947 Ride Joberg. The venue was the amazing Karkloof Country Club with its incredible trails featuring hundreds of kilometres of single track. Our accommodation was the Anew Hilton Hotel and both the Club and the Hilton Hotel took wonderful care of us, for which we are most grateful!

We arrived in Hilton on Thursday the 12th of November and immediately set off for an easy afternoon ride in the Cedara Forests, followed by dinner at the Hotel. Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings saw us drive out to the Karkloof Club and trails. Friday’s ride was just over 50km and almost all of it single track. It may not seem a long or demanding ride but it certainly was. The fact that it had rained all week in the build-up to the weekend meant the trails were a little slippery and quite a few of us met the ground unexpectedly!

Saturday was the Karkloof Classic pro race and we were privileged to be able to ride the 60km route behind the pros. It is almost certainly the most demanding 60km route in the country. Absolutely beautiful but properly tough!

Sunday’s ride was more of a light recovery ride, only about 2 hours of joyful trails and then it was time to hit the road and head back to the big smoke.

It was a special weekend filled with great riding and great company! We ate well, enjoyed some nice red wine, trained hard and raised some money for the Foundation. A massive thanks to all who joined us and donated of their time and financially. And a special thanks to Tyrone White for being our hosting pro rider, to Andrew McLean for being part of the ride organising team and to Biogen for fuelling us for the weekend!

It was in fact so good that many have suggested we do another one soon! Maybe in the new year!!

0n the 17th of November 2019, the group of 45 LumoHawk cyclists, took to the streets of Joburg to once again complete the Legendary Double, a double loop of the iconic Discovery 947 Ride Joburg.

The cyclists endured a day of heat and wind as they rode over 200km in total and completed the first lap in an amazing 2h48, all for the sole purpose of raising money for the LumoHawk Foundation and its Vision 2020 campaign. This was the 10th year that our team has completed the double loop and every year we have been fortunate to have iconic South Africans join us for our dinner and for the ride, and this year was no different with former Springbok and World Cup 2007 winning captain, John Smit, speaking at our dinner and joining us for the ride.

We are extremely grateful to John and to all our cyclists and their sponsors, and of course to all our sponsors, who made this tough but hugely successful day possible. Thank you to each and every one of you for your continued support.

When one truly believes in a cause it can lead to some crazy ideas and some wild and properly tough adventures. This describes perfectly, the unique “Big 5 Challenge” taken on by our founder, Joel Stransky!

It began with cycling the Absa Cape Epic; then quickly moved to doing the full Iron Man; shifted on to running the Two Oceans Ultra-Marathon; then the toughest of them all – a swim crossing from Robben Island to Blouberg in freezing and shark infested waters; and finished with the up run of the famous and gruelling Comrades Marathon! Joel was joined in the challenge by friend and long term supporter of the foundation, Greg Imbriolo, who did his adapted version of the Big 5. Greg did the Swiss Epic instead of the Cape Epic.

A challenge to say the least but our way of raising awareness and support for a project that we are truly passionate about – Vision2020.

The Absa Cape Epic is known as the toughest and most prestigious mountain bike race in the world. Spanning over 8 days, riders traverse through the beautiful Western Cape region with much speed and the required skill. This epic event set the scene for our eye-testing outreach program in March, and in conjunction with Absa and the Absa Cape Epic.

Partnering with some of the other charities supported by the Absa Cape Epic, we tested over 100 children from the local area who were thought to have vision impairments and provided glasses to all those in need.

As part of the initiative, Stage 4 of the race saw Absa give every rider in the field a pink cycling Absa Pride shirt in support of LumoHawk and Vision2020. What a sight it was and this fantastic support brought about huge awareness for Vision2020 as well as considerable funds!

We launched our first Gauteng based Vision2020 outreach program at the LIV Village, Lanseria, in April 2019. Together with Professor Anthony Carlson and 10 of his students from the University of Johannesburg, we headed out to LIV’s Afterschool Program to commence screening and testing the young learners.

There are about 150 children enrolled at the program and the Afterschool provides a safe space for the kids to come and do their homework, as well as receive additional academic support and a little snack. Of the 40 primary school children screened and tested during the afternoon, over 50% of them needing glasses.

Mama Nomaza, the matron who runs the Ithuteng Program, was very grateful and explained that, not only would this change the lives of these youngsters for the better, but that she was also expecting to see a definite improvement in the learner’s academic results going forward.