Cycle Oregon will bring plenty of bicycles into Southern Oregon this weekend, but one gathering at Riverside Park will measure its purpose in something other than miles.
Candlelighters For Children With Cancer will join the Cycle Oregon festivities Saturday afternoon for a special Ride Out celebration honoring Oregon children who have experienced pediatric cancer and the families who have traveled that difficult road alongside them.
Approximately 40 cyclists from around Oregon will gather with families and four Honored Children at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, August 28, at the baseball field in Riverside Park, 304 E. Park St. in Grants Pass. According to Candlelighters, two of the participating children are from Medford and two are from Portland. Their names were not included in the organization’s announcement.
The event is part of Candlelighters’ annual Ride for a Child fundraiser, which pairs cyclists with children from Oregon and Southwest Washington who have battled pediatric cancer. Riders spend months training and fundraising before participating on behalf of an Honored Child, giving an intensely personal purpose to the miles they travel.
This year’s Honored Children range in age from 2 to 16 and come from communities throughout Oregon. Each has experienced cancer, and each represents a family whose daily life has been affected by the realities of pediatric illness, treatment and recovery.
Saturday’s gathering in Grants Pass will give several of those families an opportunity to participate together. The four children attending the Ride Out will ride with members of their families and the cyclists supporting the Candlelighters program.
For Ride for a Child cyclist Jordan Zettle, the organization’s mission is also part of his family’s experience. Zettle is the father of a child who has had cancer and understands that the effects of the disease do not necessarily disappear when treatment concludes.
“I know Candlelighters first hand, I know that the challenges of pediatric cancer don’t go away when the treatment ends,” Zettle said. “I can’t stop cancer, but I hope to raise money and awareness so it can be better for the next family and their diagnosis.”
Ride for a Child has been connecting cyclists and families for more than two decades.
Dick Hartung founded the fundraiser in 2002 in memory of his daughter, Jill, who died from cancer at age 9. The program has since continued through Candlelighters For Children With Cancer, a statewide nonprofit serving children and families affected by pediatric cancer.
The concept behind the ride is deliberately personal. Rather than cyclists simply raising money for a general cause, participating riders are paired with individual Honored Children. The connection gives each cyclist a particular child and family to represent while training, fundraising and ultimately riding.
That tradition will intersect with one of Oregon’s best-known cycling events when Cycle Oregon establishes its base camp in the Applegate Valley.
The arrival of riders in Southern Oregon gives Candlelighters an opportunity to bring families, cyclists and community members together in Grants Pass while drawing attention to the continuing needs of families experiencing childhood cancer.
For the four Honored Children participating Saturday, the afternoon will offer something considerably different from the medical settings that can become familiar during cancer treatment. They will be at Riverside Park with their families, bicycles and a group of riders who have spent months preparing for an event created specifically to support children like them.
Their individual names and medical histories are not necessary to understand why the gathering is taking place. They are children from Oregon communities whose families have encountered pediatric cancer firsthand, and Saturday afternoon they will be welcomed into an event built around recognizing that experience.
The Ride Out celebration begins at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Riverside Park baseball field in Grants Pass. With Cycle Oregon assembling in the Applegate Valley and approximately 40 Ride for a Child cyclists participating, the event will bring a statewide childhood cancer organization into the heart of the Grants Pass community for an afternoon centered on the children and families it serves.
