Cruisin' for St. Jude riders visit the campus

Riding club kicks support into gear

Nine years ago, when Rick “Rickster” Perry was looking for a few friends to ride motorcycles with, he couldn’t have envisioned just how many riding buddies he’d find—or the the impact they would have on children fighting cancer.

On a sweltering day in August, that camaraderie was evident when more than 700 members of the Southern Cruisers Riding Club roared onto the St. Jude campus to participate in the eighth annual Cruisin’ for St. Jude event.
 
Riders from across the country gathered at the Cruisin’ event to inspire their fundraising efforts. The group heard stories told by St. Jude patients and took tours of the hospital, in addition to participating in other activities.
 
Perry started the Southern Cruisers Riding Club as a means of meeting new people and setting up group rides in the Memphis, Tennessee, area. With a Web site, an online forum and a Southern Cruisers club patch, the Memphis chapter gained momentum, and it wasn’t long before people from other areas of the state, and later, the country, began to contact Perry about setting up other chapters. Now Perry’s biking brethren spans the globe – membership consists of 32,000 members in 508 chapters, 19 of which are overseas.
 
After a few years of making donations to St. Jude, the Southern Cruisers adopted the hospital as its official charity in 2001 and organized fundraisers through the Cruisin’ program. Today, each chapter of the Southern Cruisers Riding Club conducts fundraisers for St. Jude. The chapters have collectively raised $590,000 to date.
 
One special attendee at the Cruisin’ for St. Jude event was Jessica Pugh. Jessica’s parents, Calvin and Joyce, joined the Southern Cruisers five years ago. In May 2007, their fundraising efforts became especially poignant when Jessica received a diagnosis of synovial sarcoma. Synovial sarcoma is a rare type of cancer that occurs in tendons, bursae or the cavity that separates the bones of certain joints. Jessica is now undergoing treatment at St. Jude, and staying with her family at Target House.
 
Bubba Prescott, the lead coordinator of the event, marveled at the scene. He mentioned that the regionalized name of the club no longer describes its magnitude. But, he rationalizes, the name is still applicable since “everyone’s south of the North Pole!”
 
Indeed, it was quickly apparent that while the Southern Cruisers may hail from many areas across the globe, all are united in the cause of raising funds for the kids of St. Jude by doing something they love.

If you would like to more information about Cruisin’ for St. Jude or to set up your own event, visit Cruisin’ Online.
 

 

September 2007

Comment on this article.


Email This Article Email This Article   |   Print Print