20th Annual Cleburne County Santa Run

About this event

Twenty years on, this ride is still organised by a radio man. Ben Johnson of Caveman Radio 89Nine puts it together, and the help comes from a very Arkansan list of partners: the Arkansas National Guard, Mt. Zion Lodge, a poultry company and a Dodge dealership. There is no entry fee. A bike brings one non-perishable food item and one unwrapped toy, and that is the whole price. Riders gather at Red River Dodge in Heber Springs at eleven and leave under escort at noon, heading eighteen miles north on Highway 25 into the Ozark foothills below Greers Ferry Lake, with Sugar Loaf Mountain standing out of the water off to the side. The donation stop is at Drasco, where the toys and food come off the bikes, and lunch afterwards is free, cooked by the lodge and the poultry company. Everything goes to local children and to area military families. It runs rain or shine in early December, so the hill road is the reward rather than the pace, and the image is soldiers in uniform unstrapping teddy bears from luggage racks at a crossroads.