Engines revved for annual Ride for Rotary

Motorcycles, classic cars and muscle cars revved engines for the 19th annual Ride for Rotary on a sunny Saturday morning.

Coordinated by the Cortland Breakfast Club, the Ride for Rotary is an event that raises money for local organizations, and it’s headlined by a 50-mile motorcycle ride. The ride starts at the CNY Living History Center on Route 11 in Cortlandville and continues along State Route 41 near Otisco Lake. The motorcycles loop around the lake and finish on Route 11 as they head back into Homer.

The event also included a 5K & Fun Run, which began at the Living History Center and went into the village.

Farm Tractors of Yester Year and Brockway trucks rode into the village of Homer in support of the event.

The event raised over $10,000, event organizer Don Richards said. Richard is also a member of the Cortland Breakfast Club. The local Rotary organization is planning to donate close to $5,000 each to the CNY Living History Center and the Center for the Arts in Homer.

“It’s a wonderful community partnership,” said Cindy Stoker, executive director of the CNY Living History Center. “It’s great to work with the Rotary and to see their belief in supporting us. It helps tremendously.”

The event also garnered 41 sponsors, the largest amount of support in the history of the event, Richards said.

“It’s really great to help these two organizations out and get them back to business as normal,” he added as he discussed the hardships each organization faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Richards said the event as a whole still followed COVID-19 guidelines, although parts were loosened as compared to last year’s event.

“It seems a bit normal this year,” he added. “Having this event on a beautiful day was an added bonus.”