Richard Sturgeon is chair of the Los Alamos National Laboratory motorcycle safety awareness committee and organizer of the Jemez Riders group’s Ride to the Springs, a fundraiser for La Cueva teen Wyatt Taylor. Here Sturgeon sports one of the shirts being sold for $10 as part of the fundaiser. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com
Ride to the Springs participants begin will gather Sept. 14 at 10 a.m. outside the Knights of Columbus Hall and the community is invited to give them a good send-off and if desired, donate to the worthy cause for which they are raising funds.
The Knights of Columbus will be selling breakfast burritos and coffee with all proceeds going to the benefit ride.
“What better way of getting your weekend off to a good start than seeing all the bikes showing up from throughout the state and donating to this wonderful cause,” said organizer Richard Sturgeon.
Also at the send-off site the Jemez riders will sell raffle tickets and T-shirts.
The big fundraising focus of the event will be the raffle.The grand prize is a 1999 Triumph Tiger motorcycle donated by a Jemez Springs resident. Tickets are $10 each and if you don’t win the motorcycle, there are some 100 other prizes donated by businesses and individuals from Santa Fe, Los Alamos and throughout the area.
“You don’t have to be there to win,” Sturgeon said. “We will start calling the numbers at 2 p.m. at Madonna Hall in Jemex Springs and the grand prize ticket will be drawn at 2:30 p.m. even if we haven’t called all the other prizes.”
Kickstands up will be at 11 a.m. and the motorcycles will head down the Main Hill Road and into White Rock, through the Bandelier Loop and on up through the Jemez to Jemez Springs for an expected 12:30 p.m. arrival. There is no cost to participate in the ride, however donations will be gratefully accepted from riders and others before the event and throughout the day.
A 1999 Triumph Tiger motorcycle which will be raffled as part of a fundraiser for Wyatt Taylor and his family. Courtesy photo
When the group arrives at Madonna Hall in Jemez Springs the festivities and fundraiser will continue with a chile challenge and live music. The event is open to all.
The proceeds of the event will go to Wyatt Taylor of La Cueva and his family. Taylor, a teenager and junior firefighter, was seriously injured in a tragic accident in December 2017 which left him hospitalized for several months. His bravery has inspired people from throughout the United States and in other parts of the world. Taylor has had multiple surgeries since the accident and faces extensive further treatment.