While a child abuse awareness ride held Saturday in Williams Lake went beautifully, organizers were disappointed in attendance at the dinner and dance.
“We only had 11 people sitting for dinner and food for 100,” said Renee Albinati with the Central Cariboo Temp Chapter of Bikers Against Child Abuse Monday.
The event left organizers with a bill of $3,000 to pay out of their own pockets, she said. Funds the group had hoped to raise would have gone toward helping children in Williams Lake with therapy and court costs, even teddy bears.
“All the money would have stayed local, it wouldn’t have gone anywhere else,” Albinati said. “We were really disappointed that it didn’t go. We are scrambling around now to try and get the funds.”
Twenty-one riders participated in the awareness ride, some coming from Kamloops and Big Lake.
Before they departed from the Oliver Street Pub parking lot Saturday before noon, chapter spokesperson John-Paul Albinati said the statistics were pretty terrifying.
“They say one in three girls and one in six boys are sexually abused by the time they are 18.”
The ride proceeded through the downtown, then up Highway 97 through Mountain House Road to McLeese Lake, before returning to Williams Lake.
Bikers Against Child Abuse exists with the intent to create a safer environment for abused children. Members stand ready to lend support to wounded children and work in conjunction with local police and the courts.