ROCKINGHAM — A convoy of local bikers roared out of the parking lot of VFW Post 4203 Sunday just after 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon in a ride to benefit Krystal Dawn Retreat.
The ride was organized by Ol Skool Tribe Riding Club and included participants from Steel Wheels, Playaz Elite, Ghost Riders and Confederate Misfits, as well as several independent riders.
The retreat is the vision of Barbara and Leo McAuley who visited other properties in North Carolina, as well as Virginia and Tennessee, before settling on a site on Sneads Mill Road south of Cordova to build a getaway for families with special needs children.
It’s named after Barbara McAuley’s daughter who had more than 50 surgeries in her short lifetime and died following a multiple organ transplant at the age of 13.
Read more about the retreat here.
The event also featured a meal, door prizes, auction and 50/50 raffle. As is customary, the winner of the raffle donated the winnings back for a total of $390.
Auction items included gift baskets, tumblers, clocks and a grill, the latter of which pulled in the most money.
Some people even stopped by just to make a donation to the cause.
“You’re loving people, you’re giving people,” Leo McAuley told the group following the ride.
“They didn’t know us from Adam and Eve and we met them and it was like family right away,” Barbara McAuley said of the Ol Skool members. “This has been such an outreach of community that we are just blown away.”
The McAuleys also thanked their church family from Freedom Baptist for all the help they’ve received.
Ol Skool has held rides the past seven years to benefit special needs children in Richmond County for Pence Place, Cordova School (before it was made a middle school) and Sandhills Children’s Center.
