The Riding Into History Board of Directors met in early April and decided that the 24th Annual Riding Into History event would be our final year. This was not an easy decision to reach and we chose not to disclose that decision until after the event was over to avoid negatively influencing this year’s event in any manner.
After being in operation for the past 25 years, we reached a point where we could no longer plan to adequately staff the event from a diminishing pool of available volunteers. This was especially critical for replacing multiple long-time members of our management operating committee who are retiring this year.
As the times changed, we successfully dealt with many challenges, including hosting the event at the World Golf Village as its logistics and financial viability declined, surviving the Covid Pandemic, raising adequate sponsorship funds, managing ever-rising expenses while we kept the cost of admission low and adapting to the changing demographics of our volunteers, clubs, entrants and spectators. Along the way, we stayed true to our mission statement, which was to host the finest quality Vintage Motorcycle Show which raises funds for a local charity.
It was a long, fun ride! It brought together so many diverse people from different socio-economic backgrounds and motorcycle marque/club affinities. We brought together hundreds of volunteers from numerous motorcycle clubs/chapters from all across Florida to work together to put this show on every year. Together we donated an estimated $738,000 for Charity! We started with the Susan G Koman Foundation back in 2000, then supported Buddy Check-12, Wounded Warriors, and K9s for Warriors.
In some of our past years, we had entrants bring motorcycles from as many as seventeen different states. We have been featured in major national and international motorcycle magazines and even were featured on TV with Dennis Gage (Corbin’s Ride-On Show) in the mid 2000’s. We were honored to have so many great people serve as Grand Marshals from through out the professional motorcycle industry.
To everyone who participated in this event over the past 25 years, we want to thank you and hope you will remember all those years fondly. To all our sponsors over the years, we thank you for your commitment and trust that we would deliver every year.