Kids camp will get wheel help

Lindsay Sandham

It is a tad smaller than its French namesake and not nearly as

competitive, but the Tour de OC still manages to hold its royal

style.

Scheduled for this Saturday, the annual bike-a-thon fundraiser at

Vanguard University brings in donations for the Royal Family Kids

Camp, a week-long summer camp for abused children.

The camp was founded locally in the late 1980s and has since grown

into a nationwide organization.

“Our goal is to have a camp in every county in the United States,”

said the co-chairman of this year’s bike-a-thon, retired police

officer and current Newport-Mesa Unified School District trustee Dave

Brooks.

The Costa Mesa resident has helped with the camp on many different

levels. He started as camp director and then took over fundraising

responsibilities.

A couple who were involved with the camp at that time, mentioned

they had organized a bike-a-thon fundraiser for a sick relative and

that it had been quite successful. That sparked the idea of hosting a

similar event for the camp.

“We had 12 riders the first year,” Brooks said. “We will have

about 150 riders this year. Every year has been bigger and better.”

The ride started as a two-day event, from Anaheim Stadium to the

San Diego Train Station, with an overnight camping stop in San

Clemente. Part of this ride required passing through Camp Pendleton,

but after Sept. 11, beefed-up security made it harder to gain

clearance for all the riders, Brooks said.

“So we decided to take it to a one-day ride,” he said. “We do the

one-day ride, and we keep it all in Orange County.”

Thus, the Tour de OC was born.

There are four different rides to choose from. They include a

25-mile ride, which has an entry fee of $25 and a fundraising goal of

$75 per rider; and a 55-mile and a 100-mile ride, both with an entry

fee of $40 and a goal of $150. Brooks said the entry fee covers the

cost of putting on the event, and the rest goes toward Royal Family

Kids Camp.

“The fourth ride is a kids’ fun ride -- we’re starting that this

year,” he said. “We have a closed course on the campus at Vanguard

University for children up to 12 years old.”

He said the long rides start and end at Vanguard, so this year

they will have bounce houses, free popcorn, free food and carnival

games set up for the families of participants while they wait.

Costa Mesa resident Gary Petrak has tackled the ride three times

and was a counselor at the camp several years ago.

“The motivation [for me] is to help fund the abused-kids camp,” he

said.

In fact, he said, two years ago it rained so hard during the ride

that he thought if it weren’t for the camp, he wouldn’t have been

riding at all.

Petrak also said the ride is a really good way for inexperienced

cyclists to get into cycling.

“It’s a really well-supported ride,” he said. “This ride is over

the top on how they take care of you.”

A team of motorcyclists, Motorcycle Amateur Radio Club, follows

along with the participants to ensure their health and safety. The

motorcyclists work with Support and Gear, which will drive to the

rescue should a rider need repair work on his or her bicycle, Brooks

said.

The goal of the bike-a-thon is to raise $45,000, as it costs $450

to send one child to camp, and they try to send 100 kids from Orange

County every year.

“The first year [we] had 37 children that actually attended the

camp,” Brooks said.

In the beginning, Royal Family worked with the county’s social

services agency to recruit abused children for the camp, but when

budget cuts were made, the agency eliminated its summer camp program.

Fortunately, Brooks said, by the time this happened, word of mouth

spread, and foster parents and organizations that deal with foster

children were aware of Royal Family Kids Camp.

The weeklong program, run entirely by volunteers and held near

Twin Peaks and Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains, offers

a variety of activities such as swimming, archery, fishing and

woodworking.

Petrak, who originally heard about the camp through his church,

noted that there is one counselor for every two children, which has a

huge impact on them.

“These kids do not usually have an example of an adult in their

life who is not going to abuse them,” he said. “It takes a day or two

for them to trust you. You have to let them see that you don’t have

an agenda.”

Brooks said all volunteers go through background checks,

fingerprinting and interviews in order to become a counselor.

For more information on the Tour de OC, visit

https://www.gearingup.net.