Fundraising ride hits a bump, carries on in spite of weather

Jacob Zimmerman, Friends of the Trails board member and Ultimate Ride chair for 2021, said there had been discussion of postponing the rides to a different date.

“But this is for the memory of Terry,” Zimmerman said, “and with so many people coming in for him, we wanted to find a way to make it happen. The rain’s unfortunate, but I’m glad we can still have the event.”

A lot of the participants said they planned to ride anyway. One of those was Bill Keppner, a long-time friend of Anastas who traveled from O’Fallon for the ride.

“As long as there’s no lightning, I’m going to ride,” Keppner said. “I’ve been wet before.”

Keppner said he was going to bike the 12-mile poker run route. He was talking with a lot of other riders that were still going to be out on two wheels.

“It was officially canceled, so there’s no support or signs out on the trail,” he said. “But that won’t stop folks. I think a lot of people are still going to ride.

Terry Anastas’s wife Kathy said her late husband would be pleased to see so many people gathering for this event.

“He was an avid bike rider,” she said. “Terry really cared about the Friends of the Trails, and extending the trail further.”

Anastas said Terry’s brothers had come to town from Oregon, North Carolina, and Virginia, and their son had come from Barstow, all just for the ride named for Terry.

“They’ve been doing the fundraiser for a number of years,” Anastas said. “This is the second year it’s been in Terry’s name. I’m pleased to see people are coming out. It’s nice to see this many people.”

Zimmerman said the ride had reached 130 registrations by midnight before the ride, and with late registrations plus family members of those registered coming out, he estimated they’d have around 150 participants.

“We set a goal of $15,000, and we’re close to that,” he said. “It will depend on the last-minute registrations, merchandise sales, that sort of thing.”

Most of the funds raised on Saturday will go toward the next segments of the Bill Klingner Trail. Currently running from 24th Street to Parker Heights Park, the next planned goal is to bring the trail from Parker Heights down to Lincoln Park, near the Park District office.

“And then some of the funds will also go to the nature trails, for mountain biking, hiking, down through Gardner Park,” Zimmerman said.

The Quincy Park District has been working to see exactly how much use the trail has been getting. The director of marketing operations for the District, Marcelo Beroiza, said an infrared counter had been installed to get a count of bodies passing along the trail, from walkers to dogs to strollers.

“We had around 30,000 people counted on the trail in two months,” Beroiza said. “The average was about 450 each day, with the peek day at 889 people. And that’s just for May and June.”

With that much popularity, Zimmerman said the Friends of the Trail hope they’ll be able to expand this annual fundraising event in coming years, also.

“We want to make this more than just a biking event,” Zimmerman said. “In the future, I’d like to see people walking, bringing their dogs, riding bikes, roller blading, whatever they want to do. It’s about having fun while raising money for the trail.”

For more information on the trails, the Friends of the Trails organization, or to help support the trails, please visit friendsofthetrails.org.