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Gettysburg, Pa., Chapter 202’s seventh annual Ride to End Childhood Cancer includes other Riders chapters, members of the community.

Tim “Jester” Williams has been an American Legion Rider for more than 20 years. While still serving on active duty in the U.S. Army, he was a member of Jack D. Levy Post 573 in Harker Heights, Texas. After being transferred to Virginia he helped charter the Riders chapter at Denbigh American Legion Post 368 in Newport News.

And once he retired and moved to Gettysburg, Pa., he helped charter Chapter 202 there and served as chapter director for five years. It was then that he came up with the idea to stage a ride that not only gave the chapter a purpose, but also did some good for those outside of the chapter.

That led to the creation of Chapter 202’s Ride to End Childhood Cancer, which just recently wrapped up its seventh annual event. This year’s edition raised $16,600 that will be split between four local children’s hospitals: St. Jude Children’s Hospital, Shriners Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Penn State Children’s Hospital in Hershey.

“I thought at the time that we needed to create our own ride, and at the same – as veterans – we needed to give back to the community,” said Williams, who serves as the event’s chairman. “Every time you turn the TV on there’s St. Jude commercials, Shriner’s, and I was like, ‘You know what: This would be a good thing to do for the kids that are sick.’ Have us form a ride that does that.”

The ride started in 2019 and is staged in September during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. This year’s ride was 75 miles and traveled through the Michaux State Forest and Caledonia State Park, through areas of Gettysburg National Military Park and back to Post 202 for a lunch and raffle.

In addition to Chapter 202, American Legion Riders from Dillsburg, Hanover and Mechanicsburg also took part in the ride, as did other motorcyclists. In addition to other Legion posts, multiple area businesses and other organizations supported the ride.

“It’s just going out and knocking on doors, basically,” Williams said. “We go in with a letter saying who we are, what we’re doing. They’ll either give us a cash donation toward the ride, or else they’ll give us a raffle item. Everybody’s out there hitting the local businesses. And every cent goes to these hospitals. We don’t keep anything to cover any of our costs.”

The first ride in 2019 raised $1,300 and was dedicated to Williams’ nephew, Norman, who died from neurofibromatosis at age 17. Each year the ride is dedicated to someone who has been impacted by childhood cancer. In 2022, the ride was dedicated to a local youth who had cancer; the more than $4,000 raised went directly to his family.

“This is a way for veterans to give back to someone else,” Williams said. “That was the reason behind it.”

Being able to raise the amount the ride did this year “is unbelievable. I’ve visited children’s hospitals and seen the children that were sick with cancer. The key thing to this year and the money we raised is that God works in mysterious ways. People that you wouldn’t expect seem to come through. We had an individual, Frank Bullock from Hanover Post 14’s Legion Riders and a (Sons of 51�Թ�) member. He found out about our ride, and he hit the ground running. The biggest donors we had were directly because of him.”