Groups champion charities

Bike rally back in 2016

Emily Rappe Fisher (from left), Elizabeth Shackelford, Michelle Winn and Carolene Thornton enjoy the Bikes, Blues & BBQ awards party Dec. 7 at George’s Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville.
Emily Rappe Fisher (from left), Elizabeth Shackelford, Michelle Winn and Carolene Thornton enjoy the Bikes, Blues & BBQ awards party Dec. 7 at George’s Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville.

Bikes, Blues & BBQ volunteers, backers, bikers and beneficiaries gathered for the annual charity awards celebration Dec. 7 at George’s Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville.

Joe Giles, executive director, said “the world’s largest charity-driven motorcycle rally” held in Fayetteville in the fall, made it possible for the group to distribute more than $173,000 to 50 area nonprofit organizations.

Benefiting groups fit within four focus areas — youth programs, public education, community outreach or cultural enrichment. Since the rally started in 2000, organizers have donated more than $600,000 to local charities.

Nonprofit organizations contribute to the rally, and thus their donation, by volunteering at the rally and ancillary events or organizing their own events.

Groups getting a boost from the bike rally in 2015 include Cooperative Emergency Outreach, the Children’s Safety Center, Feed Communities, Life Styles Inc., Open Avenues, Northwest Arkansas Center for Sexual Assault, Childcare Aware, Habitat for Humanity, the Fayetteville Public Education Foundation, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Northwest Arkansas, the M and N Augustine Foundation, Pagnozzi Charities, Peace at Home, Northwest Arkansas Women’s Shelter, Yvonne Richardson Center and the Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Northwest Arkansas.

The 2016 Bikes, Blues & BBQ is set for Sept. 21-24.

Among those gathered for the celebration were Levon Ogden, Jeff Koenig, Neal Crawford, Pete Reagan, Buddy Ledford, Tenisha Gist and Carl Dunn, Eva Laurin, Elizabeth Shackelford, Michelle Wynn, Carolene Thornton, Kate Neary-Pounds, Emily Rappe Fisher, Anne Shelley, Iesha Williams, Sarah Faitak, Erin Sudduth and Joe Augustine.

Holly and Jim Breach opened their Rogers home Dec. 8 for Jones Trust patrons as the group shared news of a fundraising campaign that will benefit area nonprofit organizations.

The campaign is the final phase of $2 million to be raised to complete the $15 million renovation of the Center for Nonprofits at Saint Mary’s in Rogers. Raising that amount of money will allow the trust to create a fund to help some of its 80 partner nonprofit organizations that are housed in the Rogers location or at the Center for Nonprofits at the JTL Shops in Springdale. The groups in the centers pay low monthly rent so their overhead costs don’t take away from fulfilling their missions.

Ed Clifford, chief executive officer, said there are nonprofits that are critical to our region that are seeing greater demand and are struggling to be sustainable. They are in need of strategic guidance and leadership in areas such as building board capacity or within their management team or in

developing a fundraising strategy.

Those attending included Linda and Buddy Wray, Mary Charles and Sid Phillipy, Diane Callahan, Russell Tooley, Susan Barrett, Betsy Phillips, Emily and John Douglas and Mike Gilbert.

For more event photos — nwadg.com/photos/society.

Columnist Carin Schoppmeyer can be reached by email at [email protected].

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