Home Local News Project Taylor Ride raises $5.5K to buy toys for kids in N.C....

Project Taylor Ride raises $5.5K to buy toys for kids in N.C. Children’s Hospital

Chris Sachs, owner of the Hide-A-Way Tavern, leads the Project Taylor ride on Sept. 24. Photos by William R. Toler - Richmond Observer

ROCKINGHAM — Child cancer patients in Chapel Hill will be receiving toys thanks to Richmond County bikers and Project Taylor.

Although only a handful of motorcycles rolled out of the Hide-A-Way Tavern parking lot early Saturday afternoon, the group managed to raise $5,500 for the cause, according to bar owner Chris Sachs, who started the ride in 2019.

Project Taylor, founded by Lorrie Stewart, is named in honor of her late daughter, Taylor Stewart.

Taylor was diagnosed in August 2010 — shortly after her 12th birthday — with acute myeloid leukemia, which is more common in adults.

The following year, doctors discovered that the cancer had spread to Taylor’s bones and she passed away Sept. 7, 2012 at the age of 14.

“Her last wish was to bring gifts and toys to the kids that are going through the same fight she went through to bring them just that moment of joy in the fight against cancer,” Sachs said just before the ride. “We just love doing it.”

Stewart told the RO in 2021 that September is the perfect time to hold the ride since it is both Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and Leukemia Awareness Month.

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“It means a lot,” Stewart said. “Chris and Felcia, they are so nice to have this every single year for us. It raises a lot of money to get gifts for the kids that are suffering from cancer and getting bone marrow transplants.”

Stewart usually takes bags of toys — mostly purchased from The Little Toy Shop in Southern Pines, Taylor’s favorite store — to the North Carolina Children’s Hospital during the spring and summer months, since the kids are “inundated” with gifts during the winter.

“She said no one ever visited during that time,” Stewart recalled.

In addition to the ride, there were several tables filled with door prizes and auction items.

“It’s a blessing that they do this and I’m so grateful for the riders that turn out and the people that turn out,” Stewart said. “It means so much to me because Taylor was my only child and just to be able to carry her name on in awareness for childhood cancer by doing something like this, it makes me so happy.”

See more photos below.



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Managing Editor William R. Toler is an award-winning writer and photographer with experience in print, television and online media.