Charity Rides Where did they come from?

Gnarly 928 · Aug 13, 2010

Does anyone know where the "Charity Ride" idea got started? It's certainly popular to brand a ride as "charity" and it's what a lot of really avid cyclists to love to do..

Just curious as to who/where/when the first one occured.

Is it a bit strange, this everyone 'riding for a good cause' idea? Good Causes aren't strange, I don't mean that, but just howwhen/ did sport-Cycling ever get so associated with charity fund raising?

For a time there, a few years back, there were mainly plain old 'paid' century rides, organized mainly for profit or by clubs that just loved the sport of cycling..and that is what everyone rode. But somewhere along, it became the norm for these rides to be affiliated with "a good cause" Charity ride and Century....many riders now think these are the same thing...

I am not diss-respecting charity nor bike riders nor the fact that many bike riders ride "for charity"..I am just wondering how cycling happened to get involved, how this association happened between the two very different things. How the idea of going on a bike ride for a good cause came about.

please don't flame me for being curious

Hank Stamper · Aug 13, 2010

Walkathons started around the 50's. I'd imagine someone was bright enough to realize that walking sucks so let's do it on a bike.
I don't find it strange.

wim · Aug 13, 2010

Gnarly 928 said:
I am just wondering how cycling happened to get involved, how this association happened between the two very different things

The original connection was suffering—to give the mostly non-athletic participants some sense of what it was like to suffer pain over some length of time like the people with the disease had to endure. As charity events attracted more and fit recreational athletes, the suffering association has faded into the background a bit. But you still see a few people on charity rides who ride 100 miles in jeans on old Schwinn 10-speeds, and they suffer.

seeborough · Aug 13, 2010

Hank Stamper said:
Walkathons started around the 50's. I'd imagine someone was bright enough to realize that walking sucks so let's do it on a bike.
I don't find it strange.

I find it surprising that many smaller organizations put forth so much time and effort for rather minimal returns. Ride for the Roses, MS150s - okay, I see the money (and even with these, I'm guessing the money really comes from not having to pay volunteers, cops, medical help, etc.). But the local fire department bringing out 50 volunteers to SAG 35 riders who have paid a $30 entry fee?
It reminds me of our local high school cheerleading squad having a cookie sale to finance a $30,000 trip to cheer in the Gator bowl parade.

stumbler · Aug 13, 2010

Pan Mass Challenge

I think the PMC was one of the early ones, starting in 1980. More details here:
http://www.pmc.org/about.asp?ArticleID=83

I've heard it said that the organization that it benefits (Dana Farber Cancer Institute/Jimmy Fund) was almost reluctant to accept the money way back in the beginning. Now the ride is embraced whole-heartedly as it supplies a significant portion of the annual operating budget of the Jimmy Fund.

I think they got over the "minimal returns" by setting fairly aggressive fundraising minimums for each rider, and then they hold you to that commitment. Full disclosure - I've done the ride for a number of years. Target for this year is $31 million, ride was last weekend.

Peanya · Aug 13, 2010

I think asking this question is akin to asking "how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?" The world may never know.

fontarin · Aug 13, 2010

seeborough said:
I find it surprising that many smaller organizations put forth so much time and effort for rather minimal returns. Ride for the Roses, MS150s - okay, I see the money (and even with these, I'm guessing the money really comes from not having to pay volunteers, cops, medical help, etc.). But the local fire department bringing out 50 volunteers to SAG 35 riders who have paid a $30 entry fee?
It reminds me of our local high school cheerleading squad having a cookie sale to finance a $30,000 trip to cheer in the Gator bowl parade.

I don't think I've ever seen a charity event around here that is that size. I do several a year, and attendance is generally about 200-300 at one or two of the smaller ones I do, but the rest hover around 500-1500 people.

Gnarly 928 · Aug 13, 2010

Interesting information

I've encountered riders who've really bad-mouthed certain rides for crummy food or poor porto-potties. Charity rides.

Other riders who wouldn't even consider riding without a "reason"..Some who have never even considered it possible to do a long ride without standby emergency personel and police traffic controls.

I've also seen a few scamming ride organizers who rake-off a good tidy personal profit by calling their ride a "charity ride" and then donating whatever is left over from all the entries *after* they 'compensate themselves for all their time and work'..and the riders just go.."hey, it's for charity. lets go.....What, $X00.00 dollars? that is nothing and it all goes to charity" They will charge say $100 and give you a few cookies and some gator aid, use all volunteers to work the course and then give a couple of hundred to the Livestrong or some such at the end..

I think the more organized and larger ones, they are 100% legit, no doubt...but some of the smaller ones....seen some pretty shakey stuff around a few .

Anyhow, I start to see where all this is coming from, thanks.

Trek2.3 · Aug 13, 2010

The MS Society rides are fabulous. A great experience for everyone and they raise a LOT of money. Generally a $25 fee and a goal of $300 per rider. That's not hard to meet.

MerlinAma · Aug 13, 2010

Apparently in the early days in the NE part of the country, all clubs were named "Wheelmen" and they each put on an organized ride on roads they rode routinely. It wasn't a big deal to work your own club ride since you rode that route often, but you had the pleasure of going to other areas and riding in another club's event on roads you didn't ride routinely.

Eventually charities came along and had golfing, tennis, walking, running, bicycling and every other kind of event as a fundraiser. So people got to participate as opposed to sitting at registration, working a rest stop, or driving a sag wagon.

I've ridden many MS150 rides. In my area, many if not most of the riders are more involved in the "charity" side of it than the riding side. In other words, they know someone with MS and do it for that reason.

TypeOne · Aug 13, 2010

wim said:
The original connection was suffering—to give the mostly non-athletic participants some sense of what it was like to suffer pain over some length of time like the people with the disease had to endure. As charity events attracted more and fit recreational athletes, the suffering association has faded into the background a bit. But you still see a few people on charity rides who ride 100 miles in jeans on old Schwinn 10-speeds, and they suffer.

I figure those charity events worked best when you solicited donations from friends/family/co-workers, and people weren't impressed that you were planning on walking around the block a few times. I began doing the Diabetes Bike-O-Thon (rebranded now as the "Tour de Cure") back in the late 1970's, and I asked people in the neighborhood for donations. Sure, it was only a 12-mile ride, but I was 7 years old and riding a Schwinn Stingray, so people were impressed and pledged a few bucks. Or they just wanted me off the front step.
Now you can show people how hard you are willing to work for the charity - if you are riding 100 miles in a day, the least they could do is consider a small donation to the cause.

|3iker · Aug 13, 2010

I thought charity rides was a Livestrong idea. :idea:

Charity Rides Where did they come from?

Gnarly 928

Hank Stamper

wim

seeborough

stumbler

Peanya

fontarin

Gnarly 928

Trek2.3

MerlinAma

TypeOne

|3iker

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