On the road with the TOY RUN
Thousands on two wheels and more wheels come bearing gifts
There was a wide river of motorcycles, stretching from one end of Beach Park to the other early Sunday morning.
There were Harleys and Hondas, Triumphs and trikes. There were choppers and Sportsters, Electra Glides, sidecars, dirt bikes and Vespa featherlights.
The 40th annual Bakersfield Toy Run from Beach Park to the Kern County Fairgrounds began drawing participants around 7 a.m., and by a little after 10 a.m., an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 of them were parading down Chester Avenue to deliver toys, food and cash to organizers waiting at the Kern County Fairgrounds.
“Even though we now have a lot of competition ... Bakersfield brings the people out,” said Don Oldaker, president of the nonprofit that organizes the toy run.
“I mean, we have a day like this, this kind of weather,” he said, looking out over the crowd, “this is what happens.”
Barry Steiber was there with his blue Triumph and black sidecar. Buckled safely in the sidecar was one new, unwrapped toy, an oversize teddy bear for a child in need this Christmas.
Jose V. Martinez, who goes by “Stray Cat Joe,” is president of the Hermanos Unidos Motorcycle Club. On Saturday, the day before, club members had attended another fundraiser for kids stricken with cancer.
On Sunday, the mission was all about collecting toys, food and cash that will be distributed to children and families in need by the toy run’s partner organization, the Salvation Army.
“We’re all in it for the kids,” Martinez said.
In fact, fellow club member George Pallares brought his 8-year-old daughter, Clarissa, to Sunday’s event.
“I’m passing the torch,” Pallares said. “I’m trying to teach her that all kids need
help, but some kids need help more than others.”
He wants her to understand that children stricken with illness, or affected by poverty or other issues, can be given a boost, a leg up, through help from the community.
“We’re part of the biker community,” Martinez said. “We are a family club.”
According to Oldaker, the toy run began in 1983 after a group of locals went to a toy run in Los Angeles County.
“They asked themselves collectively, ‘Why can’t we do this in Bakersfield? Why do we have to go to L.A. to do a toy run?’” he said.
“So they got together in one of their living rooms, and they founded the Bakersfield Toy Run 40 years ago,” Oldaker said. “The first year I think they had a dozen motorcycles, maybe 60 or 70 toys.”
To say it has grown since those early days would be an understatement. The main reason, Oldaker said, is the generosity in the community.
“The motorcycle community in Bakersfield, Kern County, and Southern California, generally, these are the kindest, most giving people you’ll ever run across,” he said.
The biggest year was probably 2016, when the bikers overflowed the park, Oldaker remembered.
“We still had motorcycles showing up when we were leaving,” he said. “I think that year we figured we had 5,000, maybe 5,500.”
Waiting for participants at the fairgrounds Sunday were food, T-shirts, ride pins, vendors and more. Bobby Best and the Canyon River Band were on stage for listeners and dancers.
“We have motorcycle groups that come from the coast, groups that come from Northern California,” he said. We’ve even had some from out of state.
“This has been a staple event in the motorcycle community for four decades,” Oldaker said. “And everything we collect stays here in Kern County.”