Event Information
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About 200 participants and over 30 support volunteers join a challenge. Our participants represent all walks of life and all ability levels. Support also comes from matching gifts, in-kind donations and corporate sponsorships.
The Ride for Runaways is managed by the Anchor House Foundation and a Ride Committee (RC) with a wealth of knowledge. All of the RC members are participants, some have been for many years. We are excited to announce the following challenges for 2024:
Classic RideYear: 46th AnnualDistance: 500 miles Surface: Road Route: One way, Harrisonburg, VA to Trenton, NJ Dates: 7 consecutive days, July 13-20, 2024 (About 71 miles/day) Minimum fundraising: $750 Includes refreshment stops, bike mechanics, roving sweep vehicles and hotel stays. |
Flex RideYear: 5th Annual |
Flex Walk/RunYear: 5th Annual |
We encourage you to sign up for 1 (or more) of the challenges. All of the challenges conclude the same day, July 20, 2024. All participants are invited to a picnic that day at St. James Church and receive an annual t-shirt.
The Flex challenges offer participants their choice of surfaces, routes, dates and times. You can tick off your miles an exercise bike or treadmill; on a road, bike path or city streets; alone or with friends (form a team); on the weekend or on vacation.
Participation is a commitment to raise or donate the minimum (tax-deductible) amount. The purpose of these 3 different challenges is to raise as much money as possible to keep the programs of Anchor House going.
Expectations are that you follow safe riding and walking protocols. We want your challenge to be a safe one for you and others, and participation means representing Anchor House.
Each participant will be given useful fundraising tools including a personal, online fundraising page like these. They offer a message you can write to your donors, share buttons, the ability to take credit cards or PayPal payments, instructions for mail-in donations and achievement tokens. There is a handy online tool you can use to find companies who will match the donations of their employees (yours or your donors'), and we'll give you a lawn sign to show your community what you care about and explain why you are training diligently!
More and more information will be posted to the website and Facebook page as we get closer to the start of the challenges. If at any time you have a question for which you can't find an answer, please don’t hesitate to email the Foundation's Director of Events, Catherine "Cie" Stroud at cstroud@anchorhousenj.org.
Signup becomes available January 15, 2024 here, on the website. To be reminded, mark your calendar, Like and Follow the Facebook page or sign this email list.
Thank you, on behalf of the kids who are counting on this support.
Ride Safe—Ride Smart,
The Anchor House Foundation Ride for Runaways Ride Committee
Background for the Anchor House Foundation Ride for Runaways
In 1978, a group of concerned citizens founded Anchor House, a shelter in Trenton, NJ for runaway and/or abused teenagers.
The following year, a small group of young bicyclists created "The Ride for Runaways" with the goal of raising funds to keep the doors of Anchor House open. The first riders bicycled from Florida to Trenton to earn the pledges promised by their sponsors.
The Ride for Runaways has become an annual, one-week, 500-mile ride and Anchor House has become a multi-service agency for abused, runaway and homeless youth and young adults.
The 6-week Flex challenges were added in 2000 when the Classic Ride could not be held due to the pandemic as its riders have hotel stays. The Flex challenges proved to popular for the flexibility of the time and place in which people could participate.
See here for a list of all of the towns that the Classic Ride has stayed in from its inception.
