36th Annual Toy

About this event

This one has a founding scene rather than a founding committee. In the autumn of 1988 a fast, loud Green River riding crowd - Shelly and Dave Nihart, Lawrence Ortega, Burl Coleman - got talking, and by Coleman's account it was Shelly Nihart who pulled everyone together and asked whether anybody fancied doing a toy run. Coleman played Santa on his 1936 Knucklehead with his daughter Dusty on the back dressed as an elf while Shelly filmed, and they rode through the tunnels and up Uinta Drive to the old City Market. The Vietnam Vets came in as co-sponsors the following year; from about 1990 Flaming Gorge Harley-Davidson took it on alone. The toys go to the Rock Springs Fire Department's Toys for Kids programme, which covers children across Sweetwater County rather than just the town. Entry is a toy. Riders are in at the dealership by noon and leave at one, up Uinta, down Flaming Gorge Way and onto I-80 just before the tunnels, east to Rock Springs and the fire station on College Drive. Cars are welcome. A Green River woman, Shawna Dockter, sews a Harley quilt each year to be raffled.