The 4th annual Garland Hall Memorial Ride is set for Saturday, September 14. The ride will begin and end at the Fraternal Order of Eagles at 101 Wayside Park Road in Stuart.
Registration starts at 12 p.m. and kick stands go up at 1 p.m.
Event organizer Alan Hamm said the ride is to honor his deceased father-in-law, Garland Hall.
“He was an avid motorcycle rider, and he went to any benefit that was ever around that was close by, or it didn’t matter how far away it was he tried to get to all of them. He didn’t get to ride all the rides, but he at least tried to donate,” he said.
Hamm said Hall did this for as long as he knew him.
“It’s just something he liked to do. He liked to help raise money for good causes and stuff like that. So, me and my wife decided that we would toy around with the idea of starting the first one, and every year they keep getting more and more successful, so we decided to do it annually,” he said.
Hamm estimates the ride will be about 40-50 miles long. It will all be on main highways, and there will also be two stops during the ride.
Hamm said the first one will probably be close to the Henry County line on U.S. 57 at a store as a bathroom break.
“Then the second stop, we always stop at Patrick (County) Memorial Gardens. That was where my father-in-law was laid to rest, and we always stop by there and honor him and then back over to the club,” he said.
Following the ride, Hamm said there will be a cookout with barbeque, chicken, and the fixings that will be sold by the plate, an auction, and a 50/50 drawing.
“Everything we can make is extra money for the cause,” he said.
For the auction, Hamm said he’s accepting donated items from the community.
‘They can either call me, or I’d be glad to pick it up, or they can drop it off at Hamm’s Garage, or whatever we need to do to make it right,” he said.
Proceeds from the event will go to the Ronald McDonald House.
For the ride’s first two years, Hamm said proceeds went to Mountain Valley Hospice. Last year’s was also the Ronald McDonald House.
“So many people from this area use the Ronald McDonald House, and I think it’s a great organization, that they do great things helping people in their time of need, and they’re a non-profit organization, and we just like to try to help them out, do the best we can and raise some money for them,” he said.
For more information or to donate, call Hamm at (276) 692-6498.
