www.pbtfus.org/rideforkids - Check back here for updates on the Ride for Kids schedule and event news.
AGV is a proud supporter of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation’s Ride for Kids Program www.pbtfus.org/rideforkids.
Check back here for updates on the Ride for Kids schedule and event news.You can also find info on the PBTF’s Marcel Fortney Scholarship.
RFK History
The Ride for Kids® is a motorcyclist's program that is helping find the cause and cure of pediatric brain tumors. It also serves as an educational support program for patients, their families, and the medical community.
Mike and Dianne Traynor started the Ride for Kids® program in Atlanta, Ga., in 1984, when a friend's child was diagnosed with a brain tumor. After watching the tragic deaths of many children, they set out to help find the cause and cure of this childhood killer by soliciting help from their friends in the motorcycling community.
With the support of America's motorcyclists, the program began to raise awareness and funds to pay for research in the nation’s leading brain tumor research centers. The success of the first Ride for Kids® event in Atlanta led to the program's expansion to Chicago in 1989. Mike and Dianne soon decided to devote full-time attention to their advocacy and fundraising efforts, and started the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation (PBTF) in 1991.
The PBTF is honored to be the official charity of the Honda Rider's Club of America (HRCA), which has been the presenting sponsor of Ride for Kids® since 1991. Thanks to the significant support of American Honda Motor Company’s motorcycle division, Honda dealers and other motorcycle industry companies, the program has raised more than $34 million for pediatric brain tumor research.
This support has helped make PBTF the largest nonprofit source of funding for pediatric brain tumor research outside of the U.S. government. In addition to research grants to medical laboratories, PBTF funds started the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the U.S., a national database of disease and patient information.
Thanks to the efforts of Ride for Kids®, progress is being made in the search for the answer to this terrible affliction. Each year laboratories worldwide take steps toward new and more innovative treatments for young patients. However, until the cause is isolated the prognosis of these children will continue to cast doubt on their recovery, and for those who survive, their resulting quality of life.
But with your help, there is hope. What began in 1984 as one couple’s quest to help these children has now become the target of thousands of caring motorcyclists who work diligently to help these children by raising funds to fight this terrible disease. Together we will cure the kids!
PBTF to Honor Marcel Fortney with College Scholarship
The motorcycling community lost a giant this past January with the passing of Marcel Fortney, along time supporter of the Ride for Kids® program. As the United States representative of AGV Helmets, Fortney had provided dozens of helmets as drawing prizes for every Ride for Kids® event since 2005.The PBTF plans to honor Fortney’s memory by giving a college scholarship in his name. Details of the award will be announced when the scholarship recipients are named later this year. “Marcel was more than a friend to those around him – he was one of those rare individuals who went out of his way to help others without being asked,” said Mike Traynor, PBTF president. “I met with him in California shortly before he died and he was excited about a new motorcycle event he was planning. One of his goals was to use it to raise funds to help the PBTF in its work with pediatric brain tumor patients. He will be long remembered for his passion to help the kids.”
2008 Ride for Kids Schedule
http://www.pbtfus.org/rideforkids/calendar/2008
Win the ConqueRR and Cure the Kids!
http://www.pbtfus.org/rideforkids/ims/2007-08