Trails4Transplants Horse Ride To Travel Though The Area

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Trails4Transplants Horse Ride To Travel Though The Area

Trails4Transplants is a long-distance, multiple-week-long trail ride to raise awareness about organ, eye, and tissue donation. The organization’s mission is to help alleviate major health issues by simply raising awareness for the immense need of organ, eye, and tissue donation and promote donor registration.  Secondly, they raise funds to promote awareness, support donor families, and help those who have received the precious gift of life. According to DonateLife.net, over 124,000 men, women, and children are awaiting organ transplants in the United States. Someone is added the list every 10 minutes, while 21 die each day waiting for a life-saving transplant.

Trails4Transplants’ Legendary to Lakes will be its fifth leg of a six year, 2,000 mile round trip, all by horseback. The group has traveled through ND, SD, MT and MN spreading the word about organ donation to high school students, 4-H clubs, driver’s education classes, and many other civic groups. The ride has attracted riders from 11 different states; some as far as Louisiana. The goal is to raise $250,000 during the six-year trek. The group has grossed over $125,000 in donations already.

The Trails4Transplants’  Legendary to Lakes 2017 horse ride will be traveling through our area on May 20 to June 3. The ride will cover 15 towns, starting in Edgeley, ND and concluding in Bird Island, MN, covering 320 miles.  Other towns along the route include LaMoure, Oakes, Forman, Lidgerwood, and Fairmount in North Dakota; Wheaton, Graceville, Morris, Benson, Appleton, Montevideo, Granite Falls, and Renville in Minnesota.

The organization has several activities planned along the route. The group will host the first ever DonateLife horse as their kick-off event on May 20th in Edgeley at the Triple R Coteau Arena. The following 13 days, T4T will be educating and sharing personal stories to over 800 students from various high schools, Lion’s clubs, women’s groups and 4-H clubs along the trail. The finale event will be held in Bird Island at the Renville County Fairgrounds on June 3rd. Bring the family to enjoy free horse rides, bounce houses, beer garden, food vendors, and donor/recipient recognition program. The night will end with live party music from the band Eclipse. More details on each town’s event can be found at www.trails4transplant.org under ‘map & schedule’.

Trails4Transplants welcomes all experienced horse riders. Riders may join or stop at any leg of the trail, so it is not mandatory to ride all 320 miles. Each night camp will be set up in the designated town. Bathroom facilities will be available. Support vehicles will be present to help move trucks/trailers to next designated camping area.  It costs $2/mile to ride. You need not be a horse person or own a horse to participate in the ride. Volunteers are needed to help transport vehicles, feed horses and riders, set up and take down corrals, direct traffic, and share personal stories of donation. The group is also in need of silent auction items and/or monetary donations.

To join Trails4Transplants to ride or volunteer for any or all parts of the ride, contact Roger Hille 218-201-0589 or Ashley Peterson at 701-541-2902. Complete details can be found on www.trails4transplants.org. Be sure to follow them on Facebook.