Our Story

"On June 7, 2015 our family was deeply affected by a tragedy.  Our son, Tyler was killed in a motorcycle accident and his fiance' was injured.  Tyler left behind two young children (ages 6 and 2 the day of the accident), his fiance' Kristen, both parents, a younger brother and a younger sister.  Our lives will never be quite the same, but we will always remember Tyler and the influence he had on us.

My husband and I were notified while attending Sunday Services at our church.  We were immediately surrounded by some dear friends and later one couple selflessly drove us home.  While we were still at the church my husband had to make the call to our other son who lives out of state.  Thankfully he and his wife were with friends when they received the call.  The news started to spread quickly, several family members had called us as we were heading to tell our daughter who was at work.  Once we arrived home our friends stayed with us and others came later with food.  Several of Tyler's friends even came by to see us.  Some of our family stopped in and thankfully helped to make phone calls to notify extended family.  This is not an easy phone call to make, and every time I tried to call someone it brought a fresh wave of tears.  I am very grateful I had someone else to make those calls.  

​Our son was a man with many friends.  He really treated no one like a stranger.  He was the type of person who would do his best to help others when needed.  He often asked us how he could help someone when he wasn't sure what to do.  

Just two days after his death some friends of Tyler's asked about having a ride in Tyler's memory.  I suggested that everyone be invited instead of just having people with motorcycles participate.  I wanted to show the community that cars and motorcycles CAN Share the Road safely.  So in just FOUR days, our first ride was put together.  A Facebook page was created and people spread the word.  A local TV station did an interview with our son to promote the ride.  

The day of the first ride, we were shocked by the amount of people that came to show support.  Someone made and sold decals to raise funds for Tyler's family, a local business donated gift cards to raffle off.  There were hundreds of bikers that participated in the ride along with so many cars and trucks we weren't able to get an accurate count!  There were people who we knew, but so many that we were just meeting for the first time.  Some from the community came that didn't even know Tyler (or our family).  They just heard about the ride and wanted to show support.  

Our family was truly blessed by the outpouring of love and support from our community.  The ride made such a huge impact on us we just knew we had to find a way to keep it going.   
This is why we formed a non-profit called   "Tyler's Ride"
and now with your help, we can continue to hold rides, and raise funds.  Those funds will be used to help other families in a time of tragedy.