Bikers donate thousands for kids’ charity
Published: December 12, 2005
Santa hats and leather chaps usually don’t go together, but at The Smokehouse on Sunday afternoon, the look worked.
About 300 local bikers ended their annual Christmas toy run at the barbecue restaurant on Hilton Head Island, bringing with them loads of stuffed animals, baby dolls and about $3,000 for charity.
The parking lot was a showcase of bikes mixed with a little holiday cheer — Harleys decked out with green tinsel, Honda motorcycles with antlers strapped on the handle bars.
Leather-clad bikers chowed on the donated barbecue while jamming to local band The Gnomes near a stack of toys worth about $2,500.
Recovering from cancer, local Santa Claus Jimmy Peacock of Bluffton, who missed the run last year due to the illness, came bearing gifts in the trademark red suit and full white beard.
“It’s showing the softer side of what people think are rough-riding drivers,” said Dave Tear Haar, a Hilton Head resident who helped organize the event.
In the early afternoon, about 175 bikers left Six Gun Cycles in Okatie and roared down U.S. 278 in a 2-mile long caravan with Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office escorts, stopping for a brief pit stop at One Hot Mama’s in greater Bluffton.
“It was a good, safe ride,” said Bob Mischka, a Levy resident who rode his 2002 Harley Davidson Deuce.
Money raised from the ride was split between The Deep Well Project and the American Red Cross. Half of the Red Cross’ proceeds went to the local chapter and the other to the national hurricane relief fund.
The ride turned out to be possibly the largest in its 10-year history, said co-organizer Kim Lawton. The riders this year trumped the 120 registered bikes that showed last year.
An earlier push to register riders plus ample local support gave cause for its success, organizers said.
The Lowcountry has a wealth of motorcycle enthusiasts, so gathering support wasn’t too difficult, said Sandy Parietti of the local chapter of A Brotherhood Against Totalitarian Enactments, a bikers rights organization.
“Bikers will come out for anything,” she said. “They’re loyal people.”
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