Riding For The Cure organizers still connected to cancer community
PENN TWP — Even after Riding For The Cure for 13 years, the upcoming 14th annual fundraiser to help cancer patients is more important than ever to the local event’s founder, Lynda Kerr.
Kerr, founder of the cancer fundraiser motorcycle ride, said the person she started the event to help, Deb Bell, is once again undergoing cancer treatment, and two other people in her life are fighting the disease as the event approaches.
Needless to say, she is glad she has kept the event going for so long, because it has given her a chance to help the people in her life diagnosed with cancer.
“It has always been personal to me because of my family and for everything that my family has gone through in the past, and I was never able to help anyone,” Kerr said. “It’s a rough year for me, but I’m going to continue to fight as long as I can because I need to help as many people as I can.”
The 14th annual Riding For The Cure will take place July 26 at American Legion Post 778 in Butler Township. The all-day event, which officially kicks off at 9 a.m., is not only a motorcycle run, but invites people who drive any type of vehicle to take part. The event offers food and fun at the American Legion during and after the ride.
Ned Kerr, Lynda’s husband, said that although the patients the organization aims to help aren’t typically involved in the motorcycle part of the event, he and Lynda chose a motorcycle ride because it was “what we knew.”
“It comes down to what we knew when we started this,” Ned Kerr said. “It was like, if other people could make money on it, we figured we could too.”
On July 1, Riding For The Cure received a $4,000 donation from Diehl Toyota in Penn Township. Lynda Kerr said that it’s the first time the dealership has been a sponsor of the event, but many other agencies and businesses in the region have been supportive of Riding for the Cure in its decade-plus of operation.
All money raised from the event is used to help patients — whether it be with everyday costs while going through treatment, or transportation to and from their appointments.
Riding For The Cure might host a one-day event, Lynda Kerr said, but the organization works the rest of the year to make sure cancer patients in Butler County get the help they need.
“We try to gear it all locally with whatever a patient needs,” she said. “It’s not funding research. It’s not paying someone’s paycheck.”
Heather Dickison, a board member for Riding For The Cure, said donations to the organization are appreciated, but volunteering for it also is a good way to help. She said Riding for the Cure’s board and administrators perform much of the work for their patient clients on their own throughout the remainder of the year.
“Gas, groceries, anything they can’t do for themselves,” Dickison said of the help the organization offers patient clients. “None of us get paid. We all volunteer. Every single one of us.”
Lynda Kerr said the organization works with an advocate, who helps disperse funds raised by the ride to patients who are going through, or recently went through, cancer treatments.
Since the first Riding For The Cure event in 2012, the organization has raised more than $500,000 for local patients. One ride had nearly 400 people in attendance — it’s biggest response to date.
In addition to gathering donations, the event will have dinners for sale, as well as a silent auction. Money from all purchases goes toward the group’s cause, according to Ned Kerr.
“Anybody can go to the ride or even come to the end up at the Legion,” he said.
Ned Kerr said that while Riding For The Cure in Butler County was started because of breast cancer, it has become an organization that helps people with any type of cancer.
“The money doesn’t just go to help breast cancer patients. It goes to helping all cancer patients,” Ned Kerr said. “Our awareness part is breast cancer, because that’s how we got started. As for everything else … we (raise) money to help for pretty much anything.”
The “anything” Kerr was referring to is really just about anything. He said the organization helped a woman get to her son’s treatment appointments over state lines when she otherwise may not have been able to do so.
“A young kid that had to have surgery in (New York), our fund helped pay for that so the mother could be with her son,” Ned Kerr said. “We paid for the plane tickets and hotel room. That was one thing we were able to take care of.”
Lynda Kerr said the only goal Riding For The Cure has fundraising-wise is to continue operating each year, because that’s the only way she and the organization will be able to make a difference in the lives of people with cancer in Butler County.
“As much money as we can make to help as many people as we can help,” Lynda Kerr said.
Registration for this year’s Riding For The Cure begins at 9 a.m. July 26 at American Legion Post 778, 150 American Memorial Lane in Butler Township. Kickstands are up at 11 a.m. The cost is $20 per rider and $15 for passengers. For more information, call 724-355-2456.
