ROCKINGHAM — Although this year’s Project Taylor ride was rained out, it wasn’t a washout.
Despite the rain early Saturday, the event at the Hide-A-Way Tavern was able to raise nearly $6,000 to buy toys for child cancer patients.
Some of the attending bikers had planned to hit the road, but the decision was made to cancel the ride portion of the event — for the second consecutive year.
Multiple gift baskets and other items were up for auction during the event, which also included door prizes.
Project Taylor, founded by Lorrie Stewart, is named in honor of her late daughter, Taylor Stewart, who was diagnosed shortly after her 12th birthday with acute myeloid leukemia, a form of cancer more common in adults.
Taylor passed away in 2012, at the age of 14, a year after doctors discovered the cancer had spread to her bones.
Stewart said one of her daughter’s final wishes was for toys to be taken to the North Carolina Children’s Hospital in Chapel Hill during the spring and summer months.
“She felt the kiddos staying at that time really didn’t receive any gifts” in comparison to the winter months, Stewart previously told the RO.
Stewart buys most of the toys from The Little Toy Shop in Southern Pines, Taylor’s favorite store, and takes them to the pediatric cancer and bone marrow transplant patients at the hospital.
The ride was started by late bar owner Chris Sachs in 2019 and has raised more than $15,000 the past three years combined.
