Children battling cancer got the chance to ride with the bikers on the weekend at the Parade of Heroes at Hawrelak Park Sunday.
The parade is linked to the Kids with Cancer Society’s fundraiser Look and Stepper Home Revving Up For Kids ride, a journey where motorcyclists travel from Edmonton to Montana, each one sponsoring a child with cancer.
Since the children can’t ride with them during the ride to Montana, they came up with a way for the children to not only meet the bikers, but to have a ride around Hawrelak Park on the motorcycles.
Val Figliuzzi, executive director with the Kids with Cancer Society, said that the interaction the families get with each other during meetings like this goes a long way to help the healing process of everyone.
“It’s an opportunity for families to meet one another,” she said. “They’re going through the same thing with their child.”
Tristan Sware, 9, one of the children at the event, got to ride with Dan McOuat and said that while he didn’t get to experience a wheelie, he was happy with the experience, and even said a few nice words about his driver.
“He was nice,” said Sware. “[It] was fun [and] fast.”
The Look and Stepper Home Revving Up For Kids ride leaves Edmonton June 19 and arrives in Whitefish, Montana on June 22.
