Founded in 1990, SMU’s Inter-Community Experience Center (ICE) has continued to achieve recognition in Dallas for providing tutoring, mentoring and assistance to homeless families in the area.

The Center, founded by SMU students, does not have an operating budget from the university. The Center relies on donations and grants to operate.

On March 10, ICE Center Director and English Professor Bruce Levy will bike 100 miles to help raise money.

Levy has been training diligently and plans to ride 100 miles in California this weekend. All donations from his ride will go directly to the ICE house.

“People come from all over the country come to bike for their favorite charity or cause,” he said. “I thought I would dedicate my ride to the ICE house for money to start new programs for the community.”

The most novel aspect of the ICE center is the ICE house. The house was built in 1991 by SMU students in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity. It was founded to expand on the ICE mission statement to “transform the lives of SMU students and neighborhood residents by fostering a sense of mutual understanding and common purpose across geographic, ethnic, racial and class lines.”

Four SMU students (Gina Argueta, Tangela Feemster, Charity Miller and Natalie Smith) live at the house in the low-income neighborhood of Garrett Park in East Dallas. The house serves as an unofficial center of neighborhood activity for the children and families in the area.

ICE house students develop programming, hold weekend events and provide casual tutoring and mentoring to local children.

First-year ICE house resident Natalie Smith said her experience living in the house is positive because it lets her form personal relationships with the neighborhood children.

She said that Levy’s ride demonstrates his efforts to keep the program going.

“I think it is a privilege to have someone like Levy who is so truly dedicated and stands behind his cause 100 percent. Levy always goes the extra mile for ICE house programs and the ICE house residents,” Smith said.

Levy is hoping to contribute a significant amount of funding to new ICE house programs.

“I am asking people to donate even just 10 cents a mile. But I am definitely going to complete the 100 miles,” he said.

The SMU community can support Levy on his 100-mile ride by going to www.smu.edu/giving/ice for information on how to donate.

“I invite everyone to chip in for a really great cause, and the donations will help me keep going during my ride. I’m doing this ride for more than myself,” he said.