Photo by Mike Lamb Shawn Erickson, left, coordinated Saturday’s Toys for Tots Motorcycle run which started in Amiret. Lee Seiler, center, is a co-founder of the event that started more than 30 years ago. Tammara Schons, right, is a past coordinator of the run.

Shawn Erickson, Lee Seiler and Tammara Schons all know what it takes to coordinate a motorcycle run.

For the past 33 years, each one, at one time or the other, been the one behind the scenes orchestrating the Toys for Tots motorcycle run every summer that originates from the Lions hut in Amiret and makes a stop in Marshall to donate toys to the Heart to Heart.

The three of them huddled around Seiler sitting on his motorcycle in Amiret just before Saturday’s run reminiscing on past runs they helped lead. Rows of motorcycles and bikers lined up behind them.

“I haven’t missed one,” Seiler, who is one of the founders of the run.

“I was talking to another guy. He was actually the co-founder of this and he said he was going to a Toys for Tots run up in Willmar. I asked why there is not one here,” Seiler said. “So we kind of put our heads together. And like everything else you do, not knowing anything about how to do it all, and trial by error, you might say.”

Seiler recalls the first run drew about 160 riders with the most riders in one run over the years at 700. He chaired the run for about three years.

“Then there was other people that took it over and Tam (Tammara Schons) here probably took it over and made a pretty good change. And somebody seems like they’re stepping up when somebody wants to step down,” Seiler said.

“Well they kind of cried a little,” Schons said jokingly.

Seiler and Erickson laughed with Schons.

“But no regrets,” Schons said.

“Like you said (Schons), the cause is amazing,” Erickson said.

Schons recalled she took it over because the run was in danger of ending.

“We never missed one since we started coming,” she said. “They were going to stop doing it because they couldn’t find somebody to do it. And it was like, well, we can’t do that.”

On Saturday, it was Erickson’s turn in coordinating the run.

“When I first started running 20 years ago, it’s what you did every year,” he said. “The cause is amazing.”

Saturday’s run was the first to include UTVs. While the motorcycles took off for Marshall and eventually end in Balaton, the UTVs had to avoid state highways and county roads. The UTVs headed toward Russell, Tyler and Ruthton before also ending in Balaton.

In the Hitching Post parking lot in Marshall, volunteers under the direction of Denise Schneekloth waits for the bikers to arrive with toys and monetary donations.

“This will be the first big collection or donation of toys for this year’s distribution,” Schneekloth said. “The rest of it comes right before distribution in December.”