Photo courtesy of Dianne Hahn For the past nine years, the family of Kyle Hahn, and SMSU alum and former Mustang football player, have organized a motorcycle run in his honor. Hahn was killed in a motorcycle accident in 2016, at the age of 25. The Kyle Hahn Memorial Ride, which will be June 13 in Wisconsin, raises scholarship funds and awareness for motorcycle safety.

In 2016, Southwest Minnesota State University graduate Kyle Hahn was out for a motorcycle ride near his home in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Kyle was only a couple of minutes away from home when a car making a left turn pulled out in front of him, his mother Dianne Hahn said.

Kyle was killed in the accident. He was 25.

“That was devastating to us,” Hahn said.

In the years since Kyle’s death, the Hahn family have worked to honor his memory by promoting motorcycle awareness, Dianne Hahn said.

“My husband and I decided in January 2017 we wanted to stop this from happening to anybody else.”

On June 13, the ninth annual Kyle Hahn Memorial Ride will be held in the Waukesha area, Hahn said. The event will include a poker run and raffle, and will help raise awareness of safety when sharing the road with motorcycles.

“Our hope is to raise awareness with drivers that motorcycles and bicycles share the road,” Hahn said.

While Kyle loved motorcycles, football was also a big part of his life, Dianne Hahn said. When Kyle attended SMSU, he played for the Mustang football team, wearing the jersey number 54. After Kyle died, one of the ways Dianne and her husband Tim found to honor his memory was to start a scholarship fund. Today, the Kyle Hahn Memorial Scholarship helps assist Mustang football student-athletes.

The Hahns also founded an annual motorcycle run in Kyle’s memory. Over the years, “We’ve grown significantly,” she said. Hahn said people in the SMSU community were welcome to donate toward the scholarship and ride, or take part in the ride. Proceeds from the event go toward the memorial scholarship.

“We add to the scholarship every single year,” Hahn said. The Hahn family also make donations to other charities.

Hahn said it was positive to see the response people have had to the memorial ride. She said the Hahns also feel like they are making a difference in their efforts to remind drivers to watch for and be safe around motorcycles on the road.

“People have told us, ‘Hey, I do look more (for motorcycles) now,'” she said.

The Kyle Hahn Memorial Ride will take place in Wisconsin on June 13, with registration beginning at 8:30 a.m. at Stolley’s Hogg Alley in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. The ride ends at Tally’s Tap and Eatery in Waukesha.