Saturday, June 23, 2012, Elmira, Ontario

What is Progeria? This is the question I receive often in regards to this event that has ran for 4 years including this year. Progeria is a rapid, fatal aging disease that affects children. With only 91 children in 32 countries that are known, this disease has little awareness.

I started to promote awareness for Progeria in 2006 with the launch of Fytness Fanatik the Magazine but decided that wasn't enough and wanted to do something more. At the time charity rides were not as heavy as they are now, and given my passion for motorcycles and socializing, I used that as my vehicle to promote awareness for Progeria.

I contacted the President of the Progeria Research Foundation back in 2005 and have been working with the foundation ever since.

The charity is a challenging one to raise money for because it is hard to explain a disease to someone who has no experience with it. People tend to give to diseases that are more heard of. The riders and volunteers that work with me, know this as well. We never raise a lot of money but with each pledge the riders succeed in getting they are making Progeria knowledgeable to the next person.

This year we had 35 bikes, and 41 riders plus our cameraman, Chris Saner (Saner Media), chase truck driver, Matt Sloski, administrator Meaghan Sloski, and passenger Mackynzie Mayhew.

We started the ride with a Meet N Greet and registration at Tim Hortons in Elmira, on Arthur Street, and departed at 11am. Our route took us through Arthur, Conn, Dundalk, with a stop over in Creemore for lunch at the Old Millhouse Pub where the owner, Carol Poirier-Sperandeo prepared the riders with a hamburger/fries special on the patio. We departed Creemore and headed down Airport Road through Terra Nova, into Shelburne, through Grand Valley, Fergus and back to Elmira to the Central Tavern where we posed for a group photo. Once inside the Central Tavern, we congratulated all riders, blockers, volunteers and media with prizes. The grand prize winner of the one week rental of a Harley-Davidson from Kitchener Harley-Davidson was Gary Hayden & Dawn Sisson with their amount of $1020.00. In second place was Carrie-Lynn Fleischmann and Ryan Wilson with their amount of $216.25, they walked away with a jacket from Royal Distributing and a pair of  video glasses from VSUN.

Gary Heyden and Dawn Sisson, grand prize winners.

Dave Jutzi and Brian West from the local radio stations 107.5 DaveFM and 91.5 theBeat were on hand to participate on the ride and judge our show and shine. The winners of the Show & Shine were presented with trophies donated by King Trophy in Toronto.

Merlin Frey took 1^st with his 1999 Harley Davidson Custom Soft Tail

Phil Mountain took 2^nd place with his Harley-Davidson Streetglide

The amount raised this year with total donations online, pledges and shirt sales was $2064.25.

We would like to thank all riders, media, and everyone involved with making this years ride a success.

Thank you to all of our amazing sponsors, to see who they are visit www.fytnessfanatik.com

See the music video produced by Saner Media, here.