Riding for a cause in St. Gregor

by KELLY FRIESEN

Journal editor

St. Gregor is going to shake, rattle and roll to raise awareness and money for Parkinson's disease.

The community is going to host a motorcycle rally on June 21 for Parkinson's disease. The rally kicks of at 11 a.m., but the event entails several activities before and after it.

"We have a breakfast at 9 a.m. and have a corporate chili cook-off in the evening," said Wanda Kiefer, the chairperson of the event. "We also give out prizes and have other things going on. The day will be full of lots of stuff to do."

This will be the fourth consecutive year that St. Gregor hosts the event. It all started when Kiefer started putting together the framework for the rally in 2009. She was inspired to raise awareness for Parkinson's disease when her husband, John Kiefer, was diagnosed with it in 2009.

"Our goal is to raise awareness on Parkinson's and raise some money for it," said Kiefer. "We want people to know more about it and just be aware of it."

The rally is mainly made up of people from the St. Gregor area, but it has included riders from as far as B.C.

"It's mostly local people, but we have gotten people from all over the province and even outside of the province," said Kiefer. "We've had people from B.C., Manitoba and have gotten a local group from Saskatoon."

It's tough to say how many people will take in the rally. In past years it has ranged from 50 to 200.

"We never really know how many people will show up," said Kiefer. "It really varies every year. We don't know whether we'll have 200 with spectators or whether it will be around 50. We like to have at least 50 people."

Kiefer is pleased with the amount of support the rally has received so far through corporate sponsors and citizens' wallets.

"We've received some generous donations from our sponsors," said Kiefer. "Our corporate sponsors have given a lot of support to the cause. And we've received cash donations that have really helped out."