Gifford Medical Center’s fifth annual Last Mile Ride will rev into a town near you on Saturday, August 21st. The annual charity motorcycle ride benefits Gifford patients at the end-of-life or in advanced illness.
Gifford in Randolph provides special care in a garden-side suite, the Garden Room, for patients at the end of life and to their grieving families. The medical center also has an Advanced Illness Care Team dedicated to improving care for all in advanced illness and even has specially trained palliative care physicians.
The ride was created by a Gifford motorcycle rider and nurse, Lynda McDermott of Randolph, to support the Garden Room and special services for dying patients, like massages for pain management, family photos by a local professional - Janet Miller of Braintree - care packages, bereavement mailers, grief support, help for all with Advance Directives, staff training, and much, much more.
The ride is about 100 miles through Vermont’s beautiful countryside. Orange County Sheriff Bill Bohnyak generously leads the ride and a group of combat veterans provides essential road guard services. Riders register beginning at 8:30 am, and the ride leaves at 10 am.
This year’s ride will take an expected 200-plus motorcyclists from Gifford through downtown Randolph, along Route 12 to Northfield and then Montpelier, and then on to Route 2 in Middlesex to Route 100B and then Route 100 through the Mad River Valley, where riders will break at Mac’s Market in Warren. The ride continues down Route 100 to Route 107 to Route 12 north through Bethel back to the hospital in Randolph.
At the hospital, a barbecue lunch will be served by Gifford staff and volunteers, band ‘Two for the Show & Company’ will play and free chair massages will be offered to the riders. Riders are also given commemorative pins as well as free ride T-shirts for those who register by August 1st.
The cost of the ride is $50 for one rider ($75 for a rider and passenger) to attend, but riders are encouraged to fund-raise the cost by asking family and friends for donations, and to raise more if they’re able. Those who raise the most win prizes from area motorcycle dealers.
Since the ride’s inception in 2006, it’s grown leaps and bounds. While the entrance fee hasn’t changed, fund-raising has increased from $7,000 the first year to $15,000 in 2007 to $23,000 in 2009 to $32,000 last year.
‘That’s an amazing amount of funding from this grassroots, motorcyclist-powered event,’ said Ashley Lincoln, Gifford’s director of Development, Marketing and Public Relations.
‘In year five, we’re excited to raise even more for area people in the last mile of life, to bring in even more riders and to raffle off two amazing prizes,’ Lincoln added.
Thanks in part to the generosity of Wilkins Harley-Davidson in South Barre, Gifford is raffling off a new 2009 Harley-Davidson Sportster 883 Low. The bike is worth $8,250 retail and the odds of winning are pretty great. Only 100 tickets at $100 each are being sold. Call Ashley Lincoln at (802) 728-2380 to get your ticket before they’re gone or to find out more about the ride.
A beautiful quilt, made by Gifford nurses, is also being raffled off. Tickets are $1 each or $6 for five tickets. Call Robin Palmer at (802) 728-2284 for yours.
The ride has also already received tremendous support from area businesses. In addition to Wilkins, Lucky’s Motor Sports, Lucky’s Trailer Sales, Lucky’s Leasing, Connor Contracting, E-Management Associates, Northfield Savings Bank, Gillespie Fuels and Propane, Kilbride and Harris, Leaders for Today, Mascoma Savings Bank, MorrisSwitzer, Schiring Radiographic Imaging, Victory Capital and Sibson Consulting have all already given.
Much more information, including a copy of the ride route, registration forms, a list of places in the Randolph area to stay, a picture of the bike being raffled off and of the quilt, and photos and patients stories from past rides are all available on www.giffordmed.org.
If you have an idea of how you or your business can be involved in the ride, the hospital welcomes your ideas, suggestions and donations at 728-2380. Door prizes, for example, are still needed, and Gifford volunteers and staff are also still working to spread posters throughout the region and beyond.
Source: Communications at Gifford Medical Center 6.30.2010 RANDOLF