Members of the Prairie Winds Women’s Motorcycle Club are preparing for a milestone edition of their Ride for Ronald McDonald House (RMH).
The 20th annual ride will take place on Sept. 9. Registration is from 1-2 p.m. at the Estevan McDonalds. The ride will begin at 2 p.m.
Participants will ride through parts of southeast Saskatchewan before arriving in Stoughton. The Crossroads Inn in Stoughton will serve beef on a bun for a nominal fee. Door prizes and raffle items will be handed out in Stoughton, and then participants will return to Estevan.
Ronald McDonald House has donated a certificate for airfare for two anywhere in Canada for the ride.
Registration is $20 per person and all proceeds go to the Ronald McDonald House in Saskatoon. “We are so fortunate for the support of the community and businesses in Estevan and area,” said Pam Currie, who helped start the ride in 1999. “We usually get about 90-100 riders, so we are hoping for the biggest turnout ever.”
Currie recalls that she was speaking with Nancy Dorwart in 1999 about starting the ride. They were part of the Prairie Riders motorcycle group, which was for couples.
Currie and Dorwart wanted to do a fun motorcycle run.
“We decided that we needed to make it about raising some funds for a good cause, and the Ronald McDonald House (was chosen),” said Currie. “I think we’d known somebody that was using it at the time, so it just spurred an interest in us that it was a very good cause and that we should donate the funds to that.”
RMH, which has a location in Saskatoon, provides a place to stay for families who have a child seeking medical treatment, and it has been the beneficiary ever since that first ride.
The first ride attracted about 30 riders. Participation has fluctuated, often depending on weather. It has always taken place the weekend after the Labour Day long weekend, and while some years the weather has been great, in other years it has been cool, wet or windy.
“Traditionally we have been raising about $3,000 to $5,000 every year, so over the 20 years, I think we’ve been about $70,000 that we have raised,” said Currie.
The Crossroads Inn has been very good hosts as well, she said, as they prepare the beef on a bun meal each year. The money they raise above their costs is turned back to the Prairie Winds.
When the Prairie Riders disbanded a few years ago, Currie and her husband Paul organized the ride on their own, not only by promoting the event but securing door prizes and sponsors to attract riders and to support RMH.
Then the Prairie Winds stepped forward to organize the ride, which Currie said has helped “immensely.”
Currie said she has a hard time believing that the event is already in its 20th year. She and her husband relocated to Esterhazy last year, but she continues to be involved, and she is confident the others Prairie Winds members will be eager to make the event a success.
“You think ’20 years, maybe we should be done,’ but it’s such a good cause,” said Currie. “And it’s such a good reason to go for a ride.”
