PROVIDENCE BAY—The sounds of powerful motorcycle engines rang out across the Island recently as Ride Manitoulin 2017 had 110 riders with 22 passengers registered for this year’s event.
“The majority arrived on Friday,” said co-organizer Louise Blackwood. “We estimate we had 200 people through the grounds on the weekend.”
According to statistics garnered by the organizers, 50 percent of the riders were attending Ride Manitoulin for the first time. “Over 60 percent of the riders were from southern Ontario and over 30 percent of the riders attended because of the positive word of mouth from last year’s event.”
The organizers noted that they received generous support from Island businesses, along with financial sponsorship from over 30 businesses. “Our main supporter was the Municipality of Central Manitoulin,” noted Ms. Blackwood.
Among the Ride Manitoulin events, the Scenic Guided Tour led by Randy Bowerman and Jud White was a tremendous success. The tour was integrated with Ride Manitoulin’s main biker event, the poker run, which was all day on Saturday.
“Our Show and Shine event on Saturday had four categories. Winners were Best Cruiser: Mike Blackwood; Best Vintage, Ernie Schoenholz; Best Sport, Dustin Book; and Best Custom, Rico Kriegizas.”
“Our highly entertaining biker games were hosted by Roger Vilkarsis with games such as Slow as you Go, Barrel Roll of Death, Bite the Weenie and the Plunger of Death keeping everyone watching in stitches,” said Ms. Blackwood.
Friday night was capped with a social that included music and karaoke with DJ John Roy from M’Chigeeng. While Saturday concluded with a dance and entertainment by Tim Woodcock and Friends with special guest, Gregg Dechert. “Their finale was an amazing rendition of the Bad Company song ‘Shooting Star’ with an encore performance of a Pink Floyd cover of ‘Comfortably Numb.’
This year’s executive committee consisted of president Randy Bowerman, vicepresident Bill Blackwood, secretary Ann Noble Auxier and treasurer Louise Blackwood.
“We are a small group of volunteers, always looking for new members,” said Ms. Blackwood. “Visit us at our webpage online at
www.ridemanitoulin.net or join our group on Facebook under Ride Manitoulin. “Special thank you goes to Darren Clarke of Hummingbird Aerial Productions who visited our event all weekend and is making a video for our Facebook page.
