All for a great cause
The Winchester Bike Night team is collecting donations for Ride for Dad. The team stopped by Chesterville last week to take a photo of one of their many Chesterville sponsors. Here, Julie Jeaurond and Gordon Dean of Mike Deans pose for a picture with the DKW motorcycle, which has become the centerpiece of the Winchester Bike Night fundraiser for prostate cancer. Morin photo

WINCHESTER – Winchester Bike Night has put together a team for ‘Ride Alone Together,’ this year’s Motorcycle Ride for Dad fundraiser.

The team has been organized by Vince Zandbelt.

2020 looks a little different than other years as we work with COVID-19 protocols and social distancing measures in place but Ride for Dad came up with a great alternative to their traditional one day ride event.

“Our Winchester Bike Night team has decided to take things a step further. We’ll go to your commercial business location (retail, office, farms, industrial) with the now famous Zandbelt 1956 DKW bike, we’ll take a photo in front of your building or logo with or without staff present, and not only will you receive a unique Winchester Bike Night Covid mask, but you’ll also be featured in a video with music overlay along with other sponsors created by the DKW bike video editor Reid Zandbelt,” said Vince.

The video is expected to be available for viewing on Sun., Sept 27, on youtube.

A link to the video will be posted on the Winchester Downtown Revitalization Committee’s website.

To date, he has received donations from 81 sponsors, of which nine were farms.

Zandbelt was happy to have been able to make 71 stops between, Ottawa, Chesterville and Winchester as he took the motorcycle around for pictures.

The commercial rate for a video entry is $250 and above. “We’ve also opened this up to the general public,” he said.

“For every personal sponsorship of $100 and above, the team will set up a socially distanced photo shoot at the Sweet Corner Park in Winchester (staggered date/time scheduling yet to be determined) to get a snapshot with you and the now popular DKW bike,” he said. For sponsors in Chesterville, Zanbelt will pick a local setting where he can do all of the sponsors one at a time as in Winchester.

Masks are generously sponsored by Sam’s Emporium 503 Main Street, Winchester.

“The video will be featured on the Winchester Bike Night & Ottawa Ride for Dad social media sites plus other local news sites,” said Zandbelt.

Any and all contributions are welcome.

The fundraising is not over.

Due to the great response he has received, Zandbelt will be raising his goal from $10,000 to $15,000.

To get in touch with him to make a donation, or to reserve to have a photo taken at Sweet Corner in Winchester email him at: winbikenight@gmail.com.

You can also go to the “Ride for Dad” site and search for Winchester Bike Night. Zandbelt said that the number of $500 pledges that have come to him has prompted him to add a page in the video to acknowledge those special sponsors.

Funds raised stay right here in our own community.

“We raise where we ride and those funds help to support local research at hospitals like WDMH,” said Zandbelt.

People who donate will receive a charitable receipt for every donation over $20.

Once sponsorship is confirmed the team will reach out to set up the photo shoot schedule.

To ensure that the project is possible the team is only making bike visits within a 50 km radius of Winchester.

In the case of donations being made after the end of the project and after all of the photos have been taken, sponsors names without photos will be added to the bundled sponsors’ page.

Another link to use to take part in the project is: https://ridefordad.akaraisin.com/ui/RFD2020/team/301898.