Fella's ,
I was wanting to get a little input from those who have experience with riding and organizing poker runs. I am in St. Louis and every September we raise money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. It is a national campaign that raises over $4,000,000 annually to help this cause. I have not organized a poker run before and I was wanting to get a little input from those who have..... Trying to think outside the box a bit..
1. Thinking about $15 a bike and $5 a passenger...
2. We have 5 locations so the 5 card poker hand would work great.
3. Total drive time would be about 2.5 hours. Figuring about 30 minutes at each stop.
4. Free soft drinks and chips and salsa(These are restaurant locations) with a full bar. Can't discount drinks because of liability
5. Grand Prize at the final stop with winning hand. Maybe a $50 gift certificate.
6. Final location prizes by vote....ie Loudest bike, Coolest bike, Oldest bike,
7. Prizes by drawing at each location(by ticket). local dealers, beer vendors, etc.
8. End it with a charity bike wash, of course after the bikes cool down.

What do you guys think, would this go over or not..... We would get the word out by flyers in bars, bike shops, and word of mouth. Thinking about having it on Sunday from say 12 noon to 6pm towards the end of September.
Any advice would be appreciated, if it sucks, please tell me so....If you live in or close to St. Louis, would you try to make it...
jdog

 

I'm from St.Louis.......when do we ride?
I think that would be a pretty good poker
run. Looks like you thought of a few extras
too. I'm not sure about the drawings at each
stop. Poker runs get spread out as far as
bikers making each stop at a certain time.
You might consider doing the drawings at
the final stop and put a start time for the
drawings. Let us know.

 

I'm in St. Louis also. Just let us know when.

Mike

 

It will only work , If you move it to Louisiana so i can go.

 

Sounds Awesome!
I will give a heads up of what happened to one here. A gentleman who owns an aftermarket motorcycle shop has two grand daughters that have a bad desease that only 400 known cases ar known in the USA. Anyways, so he is putting on a poker run for this desease, each year he will pick a new family, fly them here, and take them on the poker run. Well this sounds great but someone, not sure who, turned him into the gambling commission here. Yes that is correct, the gambling commission. They tried to shut it down, but the way he was able to get around it was to have it sponsered by a not for profit club, so one jump forward and now it is all a go again. So just be aware of something like this if it exists in your state. Can not believe people would do that, but they did.

 

A local charity had their first Poker Run just a few weeks back. They had about 50 bikes with around 75 hands sold. First hand was $15 each additional hand $5. Plus drawings were $5 you got 6 entries. Or $1 a raffle ticket. At the end they had raffle drawings for prizes donated by various businesses etc. Best hand $150, worst hand $50. They sold t-shirts for $10 also. With all that and donations (my club gave $65.00) they raised $2000.00. Not too bad for their first year. I would highly suggest you try to contact all and I mean all of the local clubs not just the ones you have heard about or know of. Check around best you can. That was the one thing the lady who came to our meeting to promote this Run said. She heard from other clubs why didn't she contact them etc. Some of the clubs she mentioned we had never heard or seen around either.

Good luck.

LeavenworthJeff

 

Guys,
Thanks a lot for the input, I appreciate it. I don't think we will have any problems since 100% of the money will go to St. Jude's. We will cover the cost of the other stuff. St. Louis guys I'm going to take this to the next level of putting this together and I will add to this post when I nail down a solid date. At this point I have shot it across to a couple of other people and depending on the date, I have a 8 bike commitment, however I have not even put the "word" out yet.
Thanks,
Jdog

 

Don't forget about a small raffle or silent auction. Both are great ways to raise a good amount of cash very quickly.

Being in STL, you should be able to get a good amount of donations from local businesses. My shop has a special program set up just for local and national charity events like yours, and I'm sure your local shops do as well. You can see the basics of our program here.

It looks like you are getting your ducks in a row and you should have a great show. Good luck with everything.

Derk

Edit: typo.

 

Hello my name is Brenda Culp. My husband and I have been avid Harley riders for years but recently I was diagnosed with a rare auto immune disease called Susac Syndrome. I have a tennis ball sized lesion in my brain that is growing and putting pressure on the nerves for my eye sight and hearing which means I will eventually go blind and deaf. There is no cure for this disease and no medication for people with it. My doctors do not know how to treat me. Besides causing the people who have to go blind and deaf this disease also causes: Trouble walking, dizziness, vertigo, leg tremors, severe anemia, destroys the persons teeth, trouble swallowing, numbness in hands and feet, trouble urinating, falling, severe pain in hands, arms, and shoulder blades, easy bruising, severe heartburn and acid re-flux, ringing in the ears and much more. My medical bills have topped 25,000, we are going to lose our home and We need help. If any of you would be willing to organize a poker run and benefit for me and my family I would greatly appreciate it. My husband had to sell his Harley to try and pay some of the bills. There are no foundations or societies that people with this can go to for help. My family and I are afraid that I will lose this battle because my doctors don't know how to treat it. The worst thing for me is not that my medical bills are high or even that I am going to lose my home. It is that my husband and 13 year old son are going to have to watch me go through this and there is nothing i can do about it. I don't want to die. I want to live. I want to be here to see my son graduate and to see him get married. I want to be able to meet and to know my grandchildren and this thing is trying to take that away from me. Please if anyone of you could and would be willing to organize a poker run and benefit for a fellow biker in need contact me. My e-mail is BCulp38@yahoo.com.