Jamie Pina, co-founder of the ROAR Motorcycle Ride
HYANNIS – Event organizers reported that the 3rd Annual ROAR (Ride for Opioid Addiction Recovery) Motorcycle Ride was a success despite challenges imposed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“We couldn’t serve any lunch, but we were still able to get a lot of people involved and the sponsors came through for us this year. It worked out really good, we raised a lot of money,” said event co-founder Jamie Pina.
Money raised by the event will go towards covering the costs of sober living for those in recovery from opioid addiction through Duffy Health Center and the Rhode Island-based organization The Herren Project.
The program offers sober housing for individuals, the costs of which are covered by the organization for the first month, with program participants increasing their contribution for the sober housing until they are able to cover the full cost as they recover.
According to Pina, the fundraiser grew from 175 bikes to 250 bikes this year with over 300 people participating in the 40 mile ride from Falmouth to Hyannis.
The ride began at Falmouth High School and ended at Barnstable High School; an expanded route from previous years in order to accommodate more riders and further approach the organizers’ goal of a Cape-wide motorcycle ride.
Pina said that the event planners were not sure how well the fundraiser would do this year with the pandemic, but were surprised to find that the event actually gained riders as well as 17 new sponsors.
“It says that the community is coming along and starting to be aware of what’s going on and they want to help. This is a problem that we really need to work on and there’s a lot of people that need help and it’s just good to see that the community is gathering around and coming onboard,” said Pina.
Pina said that they have some ideas for next year’s ride, including possibly announcing new fundraisers in the spring.
More information on ROAR can be found at their website.
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