Helping Riders Up

I often visit the Fallen Rider’s forum on the popular site Thumpertalk.com; can’t explain why, it brings tears to my eyes every time, but I still go. Part natural human curiosity, I guess. Thankfully, I don’t know anyone on there personally. I always wish there was something that I could do to help. I just don’t know how my comments would make a real difference.

RiderDown.Org

When I came across the RiderDown Foundation, I made the decision to do what I could to assist riders who need a leg-up. The foundation, formed in 2005 to assist riders injured doing what they love, has helped 95 riders and their families financially, and a great number more emotionally, since its inception. Volunteers dedicated to supporting fallen riders keep the organization running (and growing).

Mission Statement: “The RiderDown Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping responsible off road motorcyclists and ATV racers who have been injured while riding. Proceeds are used to provide assistance to the riders and their families when faced with medical expenses and related issues.”

Volunteer Angela Koch told me about one instance of the foundation’s help that I could relate with. When racing the SCORE Baja 1000 in 2006, my greatest fear was getting hurt in Mexico. Health insurance often times doesn’t matter down there; you pay out of pocket if you want out of the hospital. This fear became a reality, for racer Hoyt Penland, in the 2007 race when he suffered a nasty crash and needed surgery in multiple Mexican hospitals to stabilize his badly injured leg.

The foundation assisted Hoyt by providing logistical assistance and covered the cost of his flight back to the states as well. In thanking the Foundation, Hoyt writes:

I went from lying in the dessert losing blood, trying to keep from going into shock and no one on my team being able to answer my calls from the sat. phone we had to the bike. To being put in the back of a jeep with a cooler lid strapped to my leg then taken to the highway where I am picked up by an ambulance and taken to a private hospital and wondering how I am going to pay for all that needs done. In a hospital where it wouldn’t matter if I had insurance or not, all the documentation was done on a type writer, try sliding your blue cross card in that. That’s a scary feeling, especially when they tell you that a flight to San Diego will cost $20,000 dollars not pesos. My father and the team show up the next day and we drive down to La Paz where I have another surgery. After which my father and I are trying to figure out how I’m going to get home, when the phone rings and it’s RiderDown… they want to fly me home. That is such a good feeling. Knowing that people care so much about a guy who just wiped out in the desert and hadn’t even heard of them. Your organization is a God sent. Thank ya’ll so much for everything, and everyone for your support. If anyone has any questions I doubt I’ll be out riding so feel free to ask. God bless all of you, and I will do all I can to help get the word out about RiderDown. If there is anything I can do to help just ask.

Thanks again,
Hoyt Michael Penland

The more volunteers and donations the foundation receives, the more riders like Hoyt they can help. We all fall, and that is the risk we accept when we strap on a helmet. Sometimes we jump up and dust ourselves off with only our pride the worse for wear. The volunteers of the RiderDown Foundation are working to help riders who need a little extra help up.

Please visit the RiderDown Foundation site and help by donating money, shopping at the store or volunteer to help fallen riders. Check the Racer-Space.com Blog for more info about the RiderDown Foundation, their race team and stories of riders that the foundation has helped.