Troop Ride 2010                                                 July 31, 2010

Troop Ride is a parade-style motorcycle ride around the Finger Lakes area of New York. All of the proceeds from this ride are donated to the USO care package program. Many of us have family members in the military overseas and this is one way we can help make their lives just a little bit better.

The first Troop Ride was held on July 12, 2008.  The ride left from Schweizer Aircraft's parking lot in Big Flats, NY and took a 110 mile trip through the Finger Lakes region. It was a beautiful, scenic ride that took us up Keuka Lake and back down Seneca Lake.  We were honored to have the Sikorsky Aircraft Tribute Chopper built by Orange County Choppers leading the way.  The ride ended at the American Legion in Horseheads, NY with a chicken barbeque, 50/50 raffle and many wonderful prizes to win.

At the highest point of the ride we had over 600 motorcycles and over 800 riders.  I'm happy to report that a check for $8,000 was presented to the USO on Monday, July 21 2008.  That's great for a first year ride.  We would like to thank everyone for their support.  That $8000 translates into about 300 care packages. 

 

Dave O'Dell has a son, Eric, who is a Specialist in the Army.  He has been deployed to Iraq twice now.  Anybody that knows Dave can tell you after his family his next love is his Harley.  There aren't many ways for us to show our support for friends and family overseas and Dave thought it would be just perfect if we could come up with some way to involve his love of riding with his desire to help his son during that difficult time.

He mentioned it to a few of his coworkers at Schweizer Aircraft, thinking he could get 15 or 20 bikes together and raise a little bit of cash to donate to a military related charity.  The first two people Dave talked to, Danny (Eagle) Young and Grace Champagne, became an integral part in making Troop Ride a reality.  The cause hit close to home for Grace, who also has a son in the Army.  He is currently stationed in Iraq.  Danny, who has been involved as an outrider on other parade-style motorcycle rides, was ready to do whatever it took to make Troop Ride happen.  It was amazing how many people immediately wanted to get involved.  Many of them didn't even have motorcycles but were there to help out in any way they could.

The plan really started to come together with the support of Schweizer Aircraft, UAW Local 1752, and Sikorsky Aircraft. 

We would like to thank everyone who helped make Troop Ride such a huge success.

 

We are a small group of people looking for a way to show our support for our soldiers overseas.  We hope by bringing a little bit of home to them in the way of care packages it might make their tour a little more tolerable.

Here is our 2010 Troop Ride Committee