BECKLEY, WV (WOAY) – The New River Riders hold their second community ride.
The New River Riders is a group consisting of several organizations around the Beckley area. They hold community bike rides every month, each with a donation initiative. And this weekend they are holding their second ever ride at the Beckley Welcome Center, near McManus Trail.
The Beckley Welcome Center Volunteer Director Vickie Webb says it’s a pleasure to host their rides.
“The New River Riders has partnered with the Beckley Welcome Center and Downtown Beckley Business Association to put on different bike riding events. So this is the second event for the bike ride on the trail,” Webb said.
So far they’ve seen a great amount of participation. They claim it’s a great way to get exercise and stay healthy while keeping safe. It’s an outdoor event, and when they’re inside they wear masks. So things are kept relatively safe.
“They’ve been going absolutely wonderful with wonderful participation with young people, all the way up to seniors. Community involvement has been absolutely awesome.”
According to one of the organizers with New River Riders Kristi Dumas, this riding event encourages participants to donate masks. Each event they hold in the future will have similar donation incentives that help benefit the community.
“Today is our second ride; we are riding for a cause. And this ride we have asked people to donate cool kids masks, so that we can donate them to the schools so they have extra on-hand,” Dumas said.
There are a multitude of organizations involved, on top of any community members that decide to tag along. Because of the great community support this event generates, they’ve managed to so far see hundreds of kids masks get donated.
“We actually will have several other organizations represented here. Not only the Beckley Police Department, but the HRC, we will have the Stuards and the Corps here, the Beckley Downtown Business Association, Dune Psychology Collective. So a bunch of folks coming together to really make a difference in our community.”
The New River Riders saw more than 400 masks get donated during this free community riding event. Their next community ride is scheduled for October, and that one will encourage the community to donate Halloween-themed items for kids.
The New River Riders have their next ride scheduled for October 4.
