Cam Penner summed up the rain-soaked 18th Ride For Doug Fundraiser this way:
”A long day. A wet ride. Good friends.”
Held on Sunday, June 2 in Langley, this year’s annual fundraiser for Muscular Dystrophy Canada raised $18,500, with 24 motorcycles and five cars turning out despite a downpour that dumped 22.7 millimetres of rain that day, while 120 people attended a “warm and dry” barbecue indoors after the ride.
“Our family is blessed with a strong support network that not even three years of storms can dampen,” Cam commented.
It was the third year of bad weather in a row for the event, a cold wet day “ironically sandwiched by two perfect sunny riding days,” Cam noted.
So far, the annual rides have raised closed to $400,000 in the name of Cam’s son Doug, who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), which is considered one of the most severe forms of inherited muscular dystrophies, usually affecting boys in early childhood.
After Doug was diagnosed, his father conceived of the idea for a charity motorcycle ride through the Fraser Valley.
“It’s to help people like me and the families of those affected by this horrible disease, just making it more bearable to live with it” Doug remarked before the ride began.
“So we’re funding equipment as well as research.”
Most of the money raised has gone to Muscular Dystrophy Canada, with a smaller amount funding special projects for Doug, such as converting a Chevy Traverse from a three-row seat SUV into a wheelchair-accessible vehicle.
Based on conversations at the barbecue, Cam estimated most of the participants had attended multiple Ride For Doug events, something he said left him with a “warm emotion of reassurance. Reassurance that no matter how bad things get, we have a team that will stand by us.”
There are plans to hold the annual Ride For Doug Vancouver Island edition as well, later this year, but a date has yet to be announced.
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