Chicago Benefit To Raise Funds For Seriously Injured Bicyclist

Tomorrow night from 9 pm to 2 am there will be a Bike For Your Rights Benefit held at the Viaduct Theater, 3111 North Western Avenue in Chicago. Proceeds from the Benefit will go to the Mariel Mentink Medical Fund. There will be bands and bike mechanics offering tune ups to those who bring their bikes. Here are links to the Benefit's page on The Chainlink and on Facebook.

Mariel was severely injured on New Year's Day when a motorist struck her from behind as she rode her bike home from work. Here's how the organizers of the Benefit describe what happened and the after-effects of this tragedy:

Early on New Years day a cyclist named Mariel Mentink was hit from behind on her commute home. The 40mph hit and run collision left Mariel struggling for her life in the Brackenridge ICU. Doctors and nurses are still tending to her broken vertebrae, skull fractures and many other cracked bones and injuries.

“So far, she improves a little every day. It is expected that the physical repairs will take six weeks to heal, and will be uncomfortable until then. The back operation that she experienced takes six months for the pain to subside. Brain recovery takes an unknown amount of time; medical science is not advanced enough to predict an outcome. And the outcomes are different for each person.” -Excerpt from Mariel’s Caringbridge Journal.

We as Mariel’s friends, and a bicycling community, want to show our support for Mariel and her amazingly strong family. We plan to do this by having an event/fundraiser for her. This event’s purpose is to support Mariel financially and also to help to increase bike safety and driver to bicycle awareness.

According to the Benefit's Facebook page there are presently over 300 confirmed guests to attend.