Nice weather, great people and a full tank of gas. Motorcycle riders didn't need another excuse to go for a ride Saturday, but they got one: a good cause.
The annual Fun Run fundraiser saw 46 riders make the rounds to eight different locations to help raise money for Bikes for Tykes, a Christmas giving tradition at the North Central Correctional Facility, Rockwell City.
''They just have a soft spot for kids,'' said Larry Raner, coordinator for the run and captain at the North Central Correctional Facility. Raner is also a member of A Brotherhood Aimed Towards Education, a motorcycle rider organization that helps support this, and many other, programs for the community.
The run raised $460 to go toward buying chains, grips, tubes and other needed supplies to fix up the bikes, which will be repaired by the inmates who volunteer their time. Donated bikes to go to needy children during the Christmas holiday.
''We get names of children in need in the area and a week or two before Christmas we get them and their moms to come to the prison,'' said Raner. ''We have Santa Claus there and the kids are called by name to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they want for Christmas.''
They are then given a stocking full of candy, donated by staff, and a new bike. Everything is adjusted for the children by prison inmates and then they get to try the bikes out in the gym before taking them home.
They received donated bikes from the Lions Club, Fort Dodge Police Department and ABATE members, said Raner.
''Everything is funded, 100 percent, by donations,'' said Raner. ''No one gets paid anything.''
Last year, they gave away 87 bikes, said Raner.
''This is Larry's baby,'' said Doug Smith, ABATE coordinator. ''He's the one who puts it together and gets all the locations for the stops.''
Smith said they have held the run approximately nine years running, but they couldn't do it without Raner's connections to both the prison and the ABATE group.
Warden Jim McKinney, of the North Central Correctional Facility, couldn't say no to the chance to get out his newly acquired motorcycles and give it a spin.
''I had a bike when I was 25 and now that all the kids are gone and I've got grandkids it was time to get another one,'' said McKinney. ''It was a mid-life crisis.''
He said he got his motorcycle license just two months before participating in the Fun Run.
''I had a knock on my door this morning and I just had to come along,'' McKinney said.
Contact Katie Williams at (515) 573-2141 or katie@messengernews.net
