30 Nov REVIEW 2021 CAPE TOWN TOY RUN
TOY RUN A TRIUMPH FOR BIKER SPIRIT
The 39th annual Cape Town Motorcycle Charity Toy Run at Killarney on the last Sunday of November should have been a disaster. Limited in numbers and deflated by Covid-19 Regulation that prevented the iconic mass ride that is for many riders the highlight of the event, it came at the tail end of a violent three-day storm with the promise of more to come.
Any sensible rider would have stayed home, right? Wrong.
When it comes to events that benefit children and animals, especially events with a history going back almost four decades, real bikers aren’t sensible at all. Riding anything from vintage scramblers to state-of-the-art superbikes, they rolled, rumbled and roared into Killarney in ones, two and small groups throughout the day, despite the intermittent showers that made the roads slick and leathers soggy.
They brought with them toys by the thousand, individually handed them to the ‘elves’ in high-viz vests standing by with big plastic bags to protect the toys from the rain, bought badges, browsed through the vendors’ stalls in the oval behind the clubhouse and settled down to enjoy the live music and a wide variety of take-away food.
Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith welcomed the riders on behalf of the City of Cape Town and thanked them for coming out under difficult circumstances and convenor Glynis Coetzee dedicated the 2021 Toy Run to the memory of Rodney Ford, the convenor of this event for more than 30 years, who passed away recently.
The Motorcycle Club of Cape Town presented a cheque for R5000 to the Charity Toy Run Trust, specifically to provide age-appropriate gifts for teenage children in need, for whom the thousands of soft toys donated each year would not be suitable.
Yes, by historical standards it was a small Toy Run, but it was bigger than the naysayers had predicted and the prevailing spirit was determined, almost defiant, as if to say: “No matter what you throw at us, we are still here – and so is the Toy Run!”