47th Annual Gift Run
Sunday, November 1, 2026 · 10:30 AM · Mike's Famous, 951 Bank Street · New London, Connecticut
About this event
Bring a teddy bear to this one and you will have got it wrong. The organisers ask for unwrapped gifts suitable for any age and say plainly that adult clothing and store gift cards are what they actually want, because the people at the other end are largely adults with developmental disabilities rather than small children. That is the useful thing to know about the Gift Run, and it explains the rest of it. The beneficiary is Camp Harkness in Waterford, a state facility run through Connecticut's Department of Developmental Services, and the run is hosted jointly by the camp's own foundation, the New London County H.O.G. chapter and Mike's Famous Harley-Davidson on Bank Street — three hosts rather than a dealership putting its name on a poster. Nobody publishes who started it or when, which for something in its fifth decade is a small mystery of its own. Riders eat a hot breakfast, kickstands go up at one o'clock sharp, and a police escort takes several hundred bikes out of New London and along the shoreline at Niantic Bay to the camp gates. Santa rides in the pack.
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