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Children's Hospital sees fewer participants this year while Red Cross estimates $20,000 gain in donations
By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Monday, Sep 22, 2008
The autumn roar of motorcycles in downtown Akron may be a bit softer next year.
Sunday saw two annual biker-backed charity events take place downtown.
The 13th annual Children's Caravan Teddy Bear Run to benefit Akron Children's Hospital came from Adventure Harley-Davidson in Dover to the hospital at 1 Perkins Square early in the afternoon.
A couple of hours later, participants in the sixth annual Ride for the Red to benefit the American Red Cross arrived at Lock 3 Park from Liberty Harley-Davidson in Boston Heights.
The Red Cross event included about 900 bikes and still more people. Ride organizer Jackie Zavodney said food was served to about 1,500 people in a 45-minute span.
She also estimated the event raised about $70,000 from riders, donations and related activities, such as a raffle. That's an improvement on the $50,000 gathered in 2007.
The Teddy Bear Run collected about $2,400, which was less than last year, said Pam Holtz, director of foundation marketing for Children's Hospital. And the 800 to 900 motorcycles were less than half of the 2,000 that took part last year.
As a result, the Teddy Bear Run is looking at some changes, including moving its event to later in the day — and on a different day than the Ride for the Red.
That would end a four-year stretch of both events on the same day, and two years with both ending downtown.
The Red Cross' Zavodney said she would not mind if the Teddy Bear Run moved to a different day, if only because two events on the same day is a big traffic challenge for local police.
The immensity of just one event was evident Sunday afternoon as the Ride for the Red group arrived near Lock 3.
About 2:40, the motorcycles — some with men and women riding solo, some with rider and passenger — were forming two lines down South Main Street near the center entrance to Lock 3.
Ten minutes later, a couple hundred motorcycles had passed by and more were coming. Soon, parked bikes were lining South Main from Church to State streets — both sides of the road, on the sidewalk, in the middle lane, as many as five bikes across in some places.
While you could find Hondas, Suzukis and other brands, the major presence was Harley, in the bikes and on T-shirts, vests, jackets and at least one faded tattoo. The crowd, almost uniformly tanned, had people in shirts with declarations like ''Battle of the Bikes,'' ''Sick Boy Motorcycles'' and ''Are we going to ride?'' — as well as Ride for the Red shirts.
Rocky Cross of Akron, who works in the carpentry shop at the University of Akron, was in his second year on the Ride for the Red. He not only liked to support the cause, but he also enjoyed the sunny day.
Jeff Tyson of Tallmadge found himself supporting the ride a couple of ways. He plays keyboards with Tony Rio & Relentless, a country-rock band that performed at the event early Sunday evening.
But he also took out his Suzuki GT750 — known as a ''water buffalo'' because of its water-cooled engine — and made the ride from Boston Heights.
Asked why, he laughed and said, ''Peer pressure.'' The band's bass player, Paul LeMaster, rode, and talked Tyson into going along.
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and in the HeldenFiles Online blog at http://www.ohio.com. He can be reached at 330-996-3582 and rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.
The autumn roar of motorcycles in downtown Akron may be a bit softer next year.
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Comments
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Akron, OH
Posted 08:25 AM, 09/22/2008
A truly worthwhile event. Best of all for Akronites, they won't be rumblin' down Aqueduct before sunrise Sunday morning.
