The Colin Hubbell Memorial Fund held its annual bike ride on June 18 to raise money in support of Midtown’s business community; approximately 250 people were in attendance. This year’s event, hosted by the Traffic Jam and Snug Restaurant, held special significance as it would have been the avid cyclist’s 52nd birthday.

Trish Hubbell, the wife of the late Colin Hubbell, continues her husband’s legacy of being an active participant in helping Detroit businesses.

“This event had two purposes,” Hubbell said. “First, to give the riders a glimpse of Detroit – because being on a bike is a much different experience than being in a car – and second, to promote Midtown and support small businesses and entrepreneurship. In Midtown, everybody comes together to help one another and we want to keep that spirit going.”

A great example of this prevailing sense of community was represented by The Hub of Detroit, a bike shop that is on a mission to educate and help those in need. The shop welcomes those who would like to learn how to repair their own bikes and help others do the same. This year, they acted as “sweepers” for the Hubbell Fund bike ride, making sure nobody was left behind or injured.

Before the ride started, participants donning their helmets, readying their bicycles and sporting their lime-green “Like it / Bike it Detroit” t-shirts were gearing up to take a two-wheeled tour of Detroit. Registration included lunch after the ride at the Traffic Jam and Snug restaurant.

The age range was wide and spirits were soaring among those supporting the Hubbells’ cause.

There were three routes to pick from: an eight-mile long ride through Midtown that included Wayne State’s campus and Woodbridge, a 14-mile ride and a 25-mile ride that wound around Belle Isle. The bikers came back carrying a sense of giddy accomplishment with them. Some who did the eight mile-long ride said they felt as though they could have done the 14 mile-long route, and plan to do so next year.

“These routes give people a flavor of the good, the bad and the ugly of Detroit,” Trish Hubbell said, “but mostly the good, aiming to take the scaryness out of the city and change how people view it.”

Colin Hubbell was an urban developer with a grassroots mindset. He saw opportunity for growth where others may have overlooked it, and put people together that could help each other out. Among his firm’s projects are the Canfield Lofts, which kick-started the era of loft development downtown and the Art Center Townhomes located on Chrysler Dr.

“There isn’t a place in Midtown that hasn’t been touched by Colin,” Karen Jackson Holzauer, a friend of Trish and Colin Hubbell, said. “I knew him for many years; he was a great man.”

Founded in 2008, the Colin Hubbell Memorial Fund, administered by the University Cultural Center Association, is dedicated to perpetuating this great man’s love for Detroit through grants, scholarships and fund raisers promoting the growth and rejuvenation of our city.

The extensive list of grants given in 2010 alone includes funding for a mural project on the abandoned American Beauty Iron building, a grant to fund the purchase of a trailer to support a mobile bike shop traveling through Detroit that provides service and education, a campaign for WDET radio listeners to be informed of Midtown’s businesses and activities and many more.

G3NIUS Presents, a talent-booking entertainment company, donated proceeds from the electronic music show May 20 in New Center Park to the Colin Hubbell Memorial Fund.