Riding for a cause: Building community support through cycling in Sonoma County
If you ask anyone, even the most serious introvert, the one thing they long for in 2021 is the community of others. Hugs, dinner parties and events with hundreds if not thousands of happy faces. Our county is famous for putting on wonderful events that attract visitors from far and wide. And it’s not just hallmark events like the Harvest Fair or the Gravenstein Apple Fair, but also cycling events that attract both novice and avid riders with many of our amazing scenic roadways and Sonoma County hospitality. I am not talking about a mega event like the Ironman completion, but our locally-run events, which often have routes ranging from short family rides of a few miles to longer challenging rides of 100 mile or more.
Many may not realize it, but these cycling events are not just sporting events or festivals, but in fact provide an incredible amount of support for our local community by raising tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars for many local charitable organizations, as well as bringing tourism dollars into our county. Charitable organizations are all suffering during the pandemic. Like other businesses, the stay-at-home orders and pandemic prohibitions are taking a huge toll. For some of these organizations, such “gatherings” may be the main or only fundraising event in an entire year. That means they had little to no funding in 2020, save donations. Efforts at “virtual” bike ride events (where you just do a ride around your home and send in a donation) have been less than successful - really, is that even fun?
Local charity bike rides range from small grassroots events like the Incarnation 100, which benefits homeless services in our county, to the large multi-day Levi’s GranFondo, which has raised over $3 million for at-risk youth programs over the years. The Law Enforcement Chaplaincy of Sonoma County, which provides support to law enforcement, firefighters, emergency medical personnel, and others (yes that is our amazing first responders), had to cancel their Tour de Fuzz event, and just recently made an urgent plea for community support to help keep the chaplaincy running. Not only may some of these organizations not survive the pandemic, the causes they support will suffer.
The Santa Rosa Cycling Club, the nonprofit for which I am the ride director, had to cancel our very popular Wine Country Century in May, our main fundraiser for our club as well as an event benefiting the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, an organization that provides cycling advocacy and education. Our club also supports many other charity events like the Giro Bello (Rotary Club of Santa Rosa) and the Tour de Fox (Parkinson’s).
Cycling events also benefit local businesses (e.g., restaurants, breweries) who provide food and beverages to the visitors we welcome. Those visitors often extend their visits to multiple days, staying at local hotels and visiting our other attractions like wineries and museums. All of this contributes greatly to our local economy. The Sonoma County Economic Development Board estimated in 2019 that the economic impact of outdoor recreation was $731 million.
So what can you do? Consider making a donation to one of these charitable organizations and consider riding in one of these events or volunteering to help put them on (assuming they happen) in 2021. With vaccines arriving, there is hope on the horizon that we will once again be able to welcome with open arms (and roads) visitors to our county and engage in these fun and festive events.
Want to get into cycling or find out about cycling events? Contact me at bridgettedeshields@sbcglobal.net.
