Bikers ride to help kids in need

The Independent Bikers Toys for Tots (IBTFT) organization spent Sunday, October 28 engaging in the two activities it does best: riding motorcycles and helping kids.
Over 1,000 volunteers on bikes formed a parade from Forest Park to Howard Beach along Woodhaven Boulevard and Cross Bay Boulevard. The procession culminated at the Bernard Fineson Center for the Developmentally Disabled, one of IBTFT’s major beneficiaries.
IBTFT’s profit comes from donations, as well as a $10-per-bike fee charged to parade participants. Profits go to various projects for children at the Fineson Center, the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Jamaica, and the numerous group homes associated with those hospitals.
The group’s most recent parade “ran very smoothly,” said IBTFT co-coordinator Dean McNamee.
“We didn’t run into any problems whatsoever,” he said.
McNamee and partner Carmine Antonelli have been running IBTFT for over two decades. The organization was originally founded 27 years ago by Richard “Doc” Martuscello. Back then, said McNamee, IBTFT was a collection of 13 bikers who wanted to lend a hand in their community.
To say it has grown since that time would be an understatement.
“At our peak, we’ve had over 9,000 bikers,” said McNamee. “Now, we fluctuate between 1,000 and 3,000.”
“It’s a great cause,” said rider Susan Buck, who has volunteered with IBTFT since 1985. Buck said she likes working with the group because of its focus on local issues.
“These are local people - the people in my backyard,” she said. “These are guys I’m most likely to bump into on the street.”
McNamee stressed the importance of making sure donors know where their money is going. In fact, the group’s website, www.ibtft.org, offers a link to a list of the many projects IBTFT has undertaken over the years thanks to donation money. On that list are new basketball and shuffleboard courts at the Fineson Center, group excursions to the Ringling Brothers Circus, Harlem Globetrotters’ games, and Disney on Ice, and even two cottages near the Hamptons where patients can spend a week during the summer.
“It’s grassroots, so it’s just a bunch of people that get together and try to do the right thing,” said McNamee.
“When we started, bikers weren’t looked upon very favorably, but I think that’s changed a little in recent years,” he said. “Today, there are a lot of groups like ours. Without the volunteers, this thing just doesn’t fly.”
Buck said the turnout of viewers that lined Cross Bay Boulevard offered a “great” example of a “community gathering together strongly.”
“It was wonderful to see tangible results for what we try to do,” she said. “It’s good to know kids appreciate it as much as we love doing it.”