– Scottsdale Arizona Charities: Operation Toy Ride: A Motorcycle Ride from Scottsdale to Cave Creek –
Schumacher European Motors of Scottsdale sponsored a great heart-warming charity event in the valley last weekend. Operation Toy Ride benefits the Military Assistance Mission. The Military Assistance Mission is a non-profit that helps local needy active military families with one time payments for things like rent or a car payment or food.
Participants brought their motorcycles and had the opportunity to take their favorite scenic route from the Schumacher dealership in North Scottsdale up to the finish point at The Hideaway Grill in Cave Creek, where food and entertainment awaited.
To help the charity, riders paid a ride fee and were asked to also bring a new, unwrapped toy to donate to the children of military families. As you can see, the generosity was overwhelming and there will be a lot of very happy children this Christmas morning.
Michael Schumacher was in evidence throughout the event making sure everyone was getting their coffee, donuts and having a great time. His entire family was there as well helping out whenever they could. According to Michael they had 150 biker entrants last year and this year it was over 200 rider participants.
550 KFYI , a local radio station, was on hand to advertise the event and was one of the big sponsors. For those of you who can’t see beyond the “beard”, that was Marty Manning from KEZ 99.9 FM acting as Santa Claus. He did a great job!
For those of you who might not know, the Phoenix area is filled with recreational and serious motorcyclists who just love to ride! The riders and participants in this fund-raiser come from all different kinds of backgrounds and from all over the state. Besides their love for riding, they thoroughly enjoy participating in events like this.
As you can see from the pictures, most of the riders were retired military and happy to support Operation Toy Ride again this year. I overheard one of the riders giving directions to others to the National Cemetery. They were planning to go by and pay tribute to their honored comrades. It was a very touching and powerful scene.
I had such a good time visiting the kickoff of the ride, I’ve already got it on my calendar for next year. It is truly a worthwhile and fun event!
