Riding for ‘a good cause’
About 45 motorcycylists participate in Toys for Tots run
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AMIRET -- Curt Mercie has his crew with him every year on the Toys for Tots Motorcycle run that starts in Amiret.
"We've been doing this run for how many years? Twenty? We've been doing for pretty much forever," he said while waiting Saturday morning for more motorcyclists to register and kickstands up call.
"We do it because its for a good cause. That's why we do it. And we enjoy the ride and we enjoy meeting everybody we haven't seen. It's like a get together place."
Fellow crew member Steve Bicker agreed.
"It's a good ride. It's always been," Bicker said.
The other member of the group, Tammi Idso, said she's sorry the number of riders is getting smaller.
"It's getting smaller and smaller," she said.
According to organizer Shawn Erickson, the number of riders for Saturday's run was at 45, down from 100 that participated a year ago.
Lee Seiler, the founder of the run that started 35 years ago, recalls when numbers were up to 700.
"The trip leaving here and going into Marshall kind of amazing when we had seven hundred that one year. Even last year, you look back, see all the motorcycles behind you. That's quite an accomplishment," Seiler said.
Erickson has been helping to organize the run for Toys for Tots for the past five years and has been involved with the ride for 20 years.
"The end goal is what Heart to Heart does. It's incredible to see what they do at the end of the year," Erickson said. "All the volunteers that wrap gifts, sort gifts, the meals that are made. There is a lot of volunteers that go there. A lot of families that come through. It's always freezing cold when they come through and they brave it and stand outside. It's cool. Fun to see people come together like that."