If you’d like to spend a Saturday having fun while helping out the local animal community, the Aug. 24 Ride for Clinics event may be for you.
The motorcycle (or car) ride is a fundraiser for Angels of Assisi Clinics, which offer free spay and neuter events for cats and dogs. Organizer Brooke Stone said the fundraiser has a $2,500 goal.
Essentially, it’s a scenic ride up the Blue Ridge Parkway, a stop for lunch, and a scenic ride back. The cost is $25 per car and $10 per occupant of a motorcycle. The route starts at Felts Park in Galax, heads down Route 89 to the Parkway exit, follows the Parkway until participants get off just above Lambsburg Mountain.
Then, everyone will have lunch at the Pit Stop Pasta & Grill in Fancy Gap and come back through Pipers Gap – “to take the scenic route,” according to Stone – and come back to the park.
The Galax-Carroll-Grayson Animal Shelter will meet riders at the end with adoptable dogs and receive the money raised by the event, which Stone said she’d like to repeat annually.
“This is to help our community get their dogs and cats spayed and neutered,” Stone said, noting that another Angels of Assisi Clinic is scheduled for October. “It was my idea. I just really enjoy helping the animal clinic and it’s something I wanted to do for a while. And it’s a good way to bring together animals and motorcycles, because those are two things I love.”
Registration will take place 10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. at Felts Park on the day of the event; the ride will depart at 12:30 p.m. You may RSVP Stone to help with the headcount at 276-235-1720, or to offer a donation if you would like to help but are unable to attend.