2012 Memorial Weekend B.A.C.A. Fundraiser – Bentonville, Arkansas

This year’s event kicked off on Friday evening with an Inside-The-Motel Poker Run. This poker run had five room numbers as the stops where each participant had to drink a shot and draw a card. There was a prize for the person that finished fastest as well as the usual best and worst hands. Several people with musical talent that had brought their instruments with them formed a band and jammed through the night to supply live music.

The fun continued on Saturday morning with the more traditional poker run on the bikes with a route that wound through parts of both Arkansas and Oklahoma over a 4-hour period. The poker run had added money from the MLB and SOB motorcycle clubs besides the $5 per hand donated by the participants, so there was a large pot at stake. However, the winner donated the pot back to charity. Back at the headquarters motel that evening, the group was treated to an “anything but clothes” themed dance, with everyone showing their ingenuity designing their wardrobe from construction barriers, bags, and other strange items. More people poured into the headquarters motel and made donations for the charity just for the dance even if they were not bikers.

The activities started early on Sunday morning with what has become known as the “hangover ride,” which is a casual group ride through some of the twisty back roads of northwest Arkansas. It has become a tradition for the riders to offer up their passenger seats to any non-bikers that want to go out and have the experience on this early morning ride. Upon returning to the motel, the ladies started the bikini bike wash cleaning the bikes up for donations. After the ladies had the bikes all shined, those that wanted were able to enter their bikes in the bike show with classes for Custom, Cruiser, and Touring bikes along with a Best In Show.

For more entertainment, various games and activities were played in the motel courtyard area. Always popular, was a dunk tank that raised a lot of money as folks tried to dunk various co-hosts of the event. This even included a “double Donna dunking” as the two Donnas representing the two MCs involved in the event went to the dunk tank together. As is traditional for a biker event, we also had a wet t-shirt competition with one gentleman donating money to the charity for the honor of running the hose to spray them down. A couple of the crazy guys stuffed their shirts and tried to enter, but didn’t get many votes. Another game that was being enjoyed was a ring toss game with phallus shapes strapped to people so you had a moving target for throwing your rings. This competition was followed by a past favorite called “Wrap The Willy” in which teams of two have a set time to see how many condoms they can get on their phallus.

Everyone enjoyed as much as they could hold of BBQ that had been cooking in the smoker in the parking lot since the evening before making everyone’s mouths water from the aroma along with the chef’s award-winning homemade sauces that could be taken home with a donation.

The day concluded with a presentation from the officers of the Springfield B.A.C.A. Chapter, followed by an evening of karaoke, dancing, socializing, and a silent auction for items ranging from BBQ sauce to fine art.

On Monday morning, everyone was happy that they had been able to raise so much money to help the children and have so much fun doing it! The group split into smaller groups for rides heading out in the general directions back home with everyone vowing to do it again and make it bigger next year.

By Doc Lonnie Blum with Explorer Photography