For the 24th straight year, the local toy drive motorcycle ride will go on as scheduled Saturday morning to benefit Toys for Tots.
This year’s drive will be bigger than ever before according to Corey Camp, one of the event’s organizers. Camp is a member of the Freedom Seekers Motorcycle Club, the group hosting this year’s event that will start with a morning ride from Cave Spring to Rome.
“We will meet at Rolater Park in Cave Spring at 9 a.m. with kickstand up at 11 a.m. and ride to the Coosa Valley Fairgrounds,” Camp said. “There we will donate our purchased toys, followed by an auction, and then present the cash donation.”
Each year Toys for Tots accepts unwrapped toys and cash donations to provide local underprivileged children with Christmas gifts. Last year’s motorcycle ride brought in plenty of toys and over $9,500 in cash donations, and Camp hopes to exceed that.
Even through heavy rain, last year’s riders were undeterred, and this year, organizers don’t plan on letting the pandemic slow efforts down to give local children a little Christmas cheer.
The ride and toy collection will go on rain or shine with registration at 9 a.m. at Rolater Park. Admission for the ride is one unwrapped toy or a $10 donation.
“We all need something to show — even when the world seems lost — we as one can come together and make something wonderful happen,” Camp said.
The local Toys for Tots as a whole last year distributed over 11,000 toys to over 2,500 children in greater Rome. Recipients are children through the age of 12 who would otherwise not be receiving toys in Floyd, Polk and Chattooga counties.
For more information about Saturday’s ride, organizers can be contacted at 706-204-3183 or 706-676-0456.
For those who can’t make Saturday’s ride event, there is still time to help with toys and donations.
On Dec. 19, the Exchange Club will host a drive-thru toy pick-up at Coosa Valley Fairgrounds on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
To find out more about other upcoming events, or how to help Rome Toys for Tots directly, call coordinator Linda Hatcher at 706-506-4635 or rometoys@gmail.com by email. Those interested can also visit rome-ga.toysfortots.org to apply for toys or to make a donation.
