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Date: 7/5/2022
CHICOPEE – Calling all riders. Come for a day of fun and fundraising as the Breathe Free Ride Hard for CF (Cystic Fibrosis) motorcycle run sets off from the Chicopee Moose Club Family Center, 244 Fuller Rd., on July 17. Registration will be from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. for all bikes, with kickstands up at 12 p.m. for an approximately one-hour run. The after party, also slated for the Moose Club grounds, begins at 1 p.m.
Registration for riders and passengers is $20, and includes the after-party. The cost is the same for non-riding adults to attend just the after party, with tickets $10 for children six to 17 years of age, and free for children 5 years of age and younger. For that price after-party attendees will be treated to “light fare – hamburgers, hot dogs, salads,” said ride co-organizer Michele Alves, along with entertainment by the band Change-Up, raffles, vendor booths, prizes for the best decorated bike, and more. Alves explained the ride is also a family day, with multiple activities for the kids, including an appearance by the Western Mass. Ghostbusters.
After party tickets will be available the day of the ride, at the Moose Club Social Center or on the group’s Facebook page.
Alves, who with co-organizer Teresa Ross, coordinate the ride and all the activities for the after-party, told Reminder Publishing the 2022 ride will be the ninth fundraiser Breathe Free Ride Hard has hosted for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
“Last year we raised $8,500 and donated it to the foundation, this year’s goal is $10,000,” Alves said, adding she and Ross “really don’t have a goal for bikes, but I’d say 300 … that would be nice.
“We get riders from all over,” Alves continued. “ [The ride’s] been growing, which is a pleasant surprise every year.” She noted the ride was suspended in 2020 because of COVID-19 but came back strong in participation and donations in 2021.
To date Breathe Free Ride Hard, which is women-run and became a 501c3 nonprofit in 2018, has donated a total of $30,000 to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. “We’re pretty proud of that,” Alves shared.
According to Alves, the first Breathe Free Ride Hard for CF ride took place in 2014 with just 50 bikes. That year the ride raised a little over $2,000 for CF. “Back in early 2014 my girlfriend and her husband had just taken over managing a bar,” Alves said of Michael and Jeannie Clarke, and the now defunct Cabot Club where the ride began. “He was an avid motorcycle enthusiast and he wanted to do a run for a cause and to bring people together.”
The Clarkes had a friend with cystic fibrosis, she said, a cause that was also close to Alves’s heart, as she had family members with the same illness. “We came up with a motorcycle run and after party” with the goal of raising money for CF, she said. Her co-coordinator Ross, who was “a friend of a friend,” just happened to be in the club during one of the early meetings. “I asked her if she was willing to help, and she said yes,” Alves said, adding Ross has no connection to cystic fibrosis, but that she is “all in” to support the cause. “She lives it as much as I do,” Alves said.
“I myself knew nothing about motorcycles” when she set out to organize the first Breathe Free Ride Hard motorcycle run, Alves admitted, and she turned to another motorcycle enthusiast for help organizing that first fundraising ride. “I do not ride, I don’t have a motorcycle license,” she added, though she has been a passenger in several of the runs over the years.
And the annual Breathe Free Ride Hard run isn’t the only way the nonprofit raises money to support the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Alves said the organization fundraisers throughout the year, selling branded merchandise at bike nights throughout the area, and hosting other events such as a quarter auction.
“I’m very happy. We start fundraising from, like January and I don’t stop until July … we find ways of raising the money that’s needed throughout the year, “Alves said. “We’re definitely on track to make our $10,000 goal. We hope the rain holds off, and we’ll be golden.”
The Breathe Free Ride Hard event is rain or shine. In event of rain, the ride will be canceled and the after-party will take place inside the Moose Club.