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Child Cancer Toy Runs
The Cambridge to Hamilton Toy Run is an annual event organised by the Hamilton chapter of the Ulysses Motorcycle Club to raise money for, and awareness of, Child Cancer research.Hundreds of bikers from all walks of life, and from all over the country, load up their motorcycles with toys and descend on the Waikato town of Cambridge to gather in the town centre. There they can admire each others' machines and buy enamelled metal badges (proceeds to Child Cancer research).
There are some there with so many badges on their vests from this and other charity events that you're hard pressed to see what the vest is made of. If they fell off their bikes they would probably slide for around four kilometres kicking up sparks until the badges finally wore through.
The bikes range from little scooters to enormous Goldwing tourers; from antiques to brand-new state-of-the-art machines. There are also a few trikes that turn up.
At eleven in the morning, this mass of bikes gets underway and rides to Hamilton at around 80 kilometres per hour. At the head of the procession is a number of bikes carrying children who're suffering from cancer. Volunteers with a spare helmet and a spare pillion seat are called for every year.
On the side roads cars wait, unable to get onto State Highway 1 as the flotilla of bikes goes by. On the side of the road, clumps of people wait near their cars or their gates and wave as the bikes go past - the turn out of spectators seems to get better every year.
On arrival in Hamilton, the bikes make their way to the finish point - previously this was at the Reception Centre at the Claudelands Race Grounds but for the past couple of years the finish point has been - thanks to Mayor Michael Redman - Garden Place, in the centre of Hamilton.
Here, there is a huge truck into which all the toys are thrown to be donated to children with cancer or sold to raise money for cancer research. Participants can purchase food and drinks - and badges if they somehow missed buying them in Cambridge.
There is then a raffle draw - each of the badges comes with a slip of paper with a unique number for the raffle. The prizes are motorcycle gear donated by one of the local motorcycle shops.
There's more hanging out, checking out the bikes, catching up with friends and then everyone drifts off to home or wherever else takes their fancy.
Technically I have been riding long enough to have attended all of the Cambridge-Hamilton Toy Runs to date but in my early days I was unaware of the events and later I usually only heard about them after they had happened or I didn't have a functioning bike at the time.
It wasn't until 1998, when I was dating Lizzie, that I went on my first Toy Run - on the back of her bike as neither the Puch nor the Zundapp were functional.
I often dreamed of taking the Zundapp on the Toy Run but regrettably I never had it running at the time of the event.
The next Toy Run I attended was in 2002 - on my Suzuki LS400 "Savage" with my pregnant wife (bearing our first child) on the back.
The next was 2003, again on the LS400 with my wife, pregnant with our second child, on the back.
Then I blew up the LS400's engine so I missed the 2004 Toy Run.
In 2005 I got a lift on the back of Lias' Suzuki GN250 and Juliet took the cubs down to Garden Place in the push-chair so they could throw some toys into the truck. After the event, Juliet got a ride home on the back of the GN250 while I pushed the kids home in the push-chair.
In 2006 our daughter, Inverness, had just been born but Juliet still took the kids to Garden place to throw toys into the truck. As it was Inverness's first Toy Run, we bought her a badge.
This year, barring unforeseen misfortune, Juliet and I will be able to participate in the Toy Run on the XT225 while one of our trusted friends or family takes the three cubs to the finish point.