Woodward Eid Cruise returns for third year

The first began in 2020 as a safe way to observe the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr. The event now includes a fundraiser to buy a car for a family in need.

Hundreds of decorated vehicles will parade down Woodward Avenue in Detroit on Saturday in celebration of Eid al-Fitr. Photo credit: woodwardeidcruise.org

Hundreds of vehicles decorated with bright colored streamers, crescent moons and car paint will parade down Woodward Avenue in Detroit on Saturday in celebration of Eid al-Fitr. The Muslim holiday marks the end of a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting for Ramadan.

Sameerah Saadiq is a co-founder of the Woodward Eid Cruise. She says in April of 2020, she and her husband were trying to figure out how to celebrate Eid when the topic of the Woodward Dream Cruise came up.

“And we were like ‘Bazinga!’ like, we could do something like this. It’s safe, everybody’s gonna be in their cars. We can try to pull this off,” Saadiq says.

She says after the first year, organizers realized that the cruise could be more accessible.

“There’s a lot of families that would have loved to participate and didn’t have vehicles,” Saadiq says. “They didn’t have vehicles or they didn’t have a license, or they had a vehicle and license and no insurance.”

Saadiq says now the Woodward Eid Cruise also includes a fundraiser to buy a car for a family in need. She says the nonprofit behind the event is still working toward raising enough money to purchase its first vehicle.

The third annual Woodward Eid Cruise departs at 2 p.m. from the Muslim Center near the Lodge and Davison. The procession will head south on Woodward, wrap around Campus Martius and end at Palmer Park.

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Author

  • Laura Herberg
    Laura Herberg is a Reporter for 101.9 WDET, telling the stories about people inhabiting the Detroit region and the issues that affect us here.