Report Back - Saturday 28th November 2009

The kids arrived by bus to a party hosted from 8:00 to 12:00 am at the E.P Rugby Stadium B Field. 200 underprivileged kid’s attended and each received party packs and were entertained with many activities such as jumping castles, train rides, face painting, clowns & magician, the Oros man, Simba the lion , Father Christmas etc. General Motors provided  4 Chevrolet Captiva’s for transportation for the week leading up to the event At 10:00 the kids from each home sat down in front of their Christmas tree and were each designated child was handed their  wrapped present worth R150. These were donated by Makro, the bikers and the general public. The smiles made it all effort worth while. Many thanks to Midnight MCC and Equilibrium MCC, Doobie Brothers MCC, Zwartkops Round Table 195, ‘Deano’ from Pick n Pay for the great organisation. Shot also to E.T. (compare and Father Christmas), Kent Dyson (Dyson’s Honda) and Larissa Scharneck from Algoa FM whose advertising sponsorship really helped with public awareness this year, and Fiona Halket for all her hard work arranging the kids party presents and entertainment

Sunday 29th November

The mass ride met at Dyson’s Honda in Heugh Road Walmer. Apologies to the public and thanks to the traffic department for closing it off for an hour. As usually the toys were collected in a truck supplied by Consolidated North and badges, hats, t shirts, raffle and entry tickets for the after party etc were sold. Our resident D.J. and “Master Beggar”, E.T. got the crowd to place there coins on a donut circle on the road to add to his collection (he personally raised over R31700 to add to the kitty through his antics over the weekend).

At 10:00 am +/- 2000 bikes set off with the Road Captains and the BLS Medical ambulance at the front and rear of the ride. A great thanks to guys in the yellow bibs from the Road Captain’s Association (part of the Eastern Cape Club Leaders Association) for marshalling at the traffic lights and junction points. The route of +/- 20km was chosen to minimise right turns, started in Heugh Road passing along 6th Avenue, Target Kloof, Cape road, William Moffat, Main road, 6th Avenue, Villers road, 1st Avenue, Heugh road, finally along Driftsands road to the E.P. Rugby Stadium B Field.

About 1600 people attended the after party with Zwartkops Round Table 195 running the bar with several food and bike stalls catering to the public needs. E.T the resident DJ and Lance Du Plessis from Algoa FM did the comparing (Lance promised to get his bike licence to be able to take part in the Mass ride next year). Sponsored prizes were given away for the raffle tickets and the attendance draw amounted to +/- R 80000. The main raffle prize worth R20000 was a Honda Airblade Scooter donated by Dysons Honda. Our resident Toy Run Father Christmas (Kallie) collected money from the crowds. A great atmosphere prevailed with different facets of motorcycling coming together to raise money for the needy children.

This year our major beneficiaries are Lukhanyiso Home, Parish of the Zwartkops River Valley, The Aids Haven and The Oliver Foundation. The toys will be distributed to various centres around the city over the next few weeks with excess toys being handed out at hospitals on Christmas day.

Due to the growth experienced in this event over the last few years, the help from several other clubs and organisations was again enlisted this year. The running of the Toy Run in P.E. was started 17 years ago by 8 members of Midnight MCC P.E. where R1700 was raised. This year even in these hard economic times the public gave generously and we are hoping to match the R100000 + raised last year.

Many thanks to our major sponsors whom without their help none of this would have been possible.

Algoa FM – Radio advertising and comparing (Larissa and Lance)

Makro – R50000 sponsorship of kids presents

General Motors SA – use of 4 sponsored vehicles

Dyson’s Honda – Airblade Scooter worth R20000 (Kent)

Beacon / Cadbury / Natela / Simba Pick n Pay Hyper – sweets for kids party packs

Pick n Pay Hyper– R10000 shopping voucher (Deano)

Blanco Holiday Farm & Guest Resort – weekend

A special mention to the following 80 or so people involved this year:

Midnight’s MCC members, Swannie and Equilibrium Riders MCC, Boetie and Doobie Brothers MCC, and ‘Deano’ from Pick n Pay.

Zwartkops Round Table 195 for the thankless job of running the bars and charity liason from the start.

ET’s – Mobile Disco, compare and Kiddies Party Father Christmas

ECCLA Road Captain’s Association for doing the marshalling for the mass ride.

All other sponsors to numerous to mention , thanks to you all.

And finally to the co-ordinator - Mr Toy Run P.E. (if he can’t “organise” it, nobody can) Tony Halket and his wife Fiona for the use of their house as a meeting place, present storage and wrapping centre and dump site for the toys.

May next year bring an upswing in the economy along with bigger and better things. Remember its all for the kids.

Yours in biking

Richard Hawkins