Motorcyclists ride for kids
Sunday’s 140-mile ride through the hills of the Palouse really started with two people: the mother of a girl with cancer and a retired carpenter who got into motorcycles when his kids left home.
Connie Hill-Bunch contacted George Buringa – and the Ride for Children with Cancer was born to be wild.
“Man, it just snowballed,” Buringa said Sunday over eggs and sausage at the Knights of Columbus hall. “Bikers always want to help people. We got a soft heart for kids.”
Seventeen clubs from the Inland Empire Motorcycle Coalition took part in Sunday’s ride. Being motorcyclists, the organizers kept the rules open-ended.
There was a suggested ride from Spokane to Steptoe to Reardan and back. But riders could go their own way.
There was no requirement to donate to Inland Northwest Candlelighters, a group supporting families of children with cancer. The dollar amounts of checks from the clubs were kept confidential, but a total of $2,850 was raised for the Candlelighters.
“Some clubs can’t give as much as others,” said Dick Schmidt, of Lilac City Wings and chairman of the second-annual event.
Last year, the ride raised $2,000 for Candlelighters, a nonprofit group run by parent volunteers.
The group distributes resource materials to parents of newly diagnosed children, plans events in and out of the hospital, stocks food cupboards for patients in the hospital and snack baskets for outpatient clinics, runs monthly support meetings and manages an emergency fund for families in crisis.
Hill-Bunch, whose 16-year-old daughter Amanda survived brain cancer, admitted having “a few misgivings” about organizing a fund-raiser with bikers.
“You think about these guys in black leather jackets and ponytails,” she said, taking a break from registering almost 60 riders Sunday. “But these guys are just great. They have a love for kids and very generous spirits.”
The riders include women such as Peggy Frehse, who started riding a Yamaha 60 when she was 9 years old. She since has graduated to a 1996 BMW R1100RT.
Hill-Bunch’s daughter was 11 when violent headaches gave the first clue something was wrong. Surgeons eventually removed an egg-sized tumor behind the girl’s left ear. But it grew back. After more surgery, Amanda endured 33 radiation treatments and a year of chemotherapy. Now a sophomore at Mead High School, she has tests every six months to watch for any recurrence.
Hill-Bunch has a cousin in a motorcycle club north of Seattle that helps another charity for ill children. After talking to him, Hill-Bunch looked for a Spokane motorcycle club and found Buringa’s group, the Inland Empire Victory Riders, which is affiliated with the Christian Motorcycle Association.
Hill-Bunch, the mom, and Buringa, the biker, brought the cause to the Inland Empire Motorcycle Coalition, which includes all kinds of bike clubs. Sunday’s ride attracted guys in bandannas and gals in fringed leather jackets but also more conventional-looking types.