It’s that time of year again!
In February, the Merrill Community New Year Ride will celebrate it’s third anniversary with it’s third annual fundraiser set for Feb. 2, 2019 at Z’s Fork Horners Bar and Grill in Gleason.
The first step of course is selecting our support recipients for our 2019 events and we need your help!
Know of an individual or family in the Merrill area who could use a little extra help or perhaps a non-profit organization? If so, you can nominate them to be support recipients one of three easy ways:
1)Contact us for an application via our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MerrillCommunityNewYearRide/
2) Email us at [email protected]
or
3) Give us a call (715) 536-8494.
Nominators may remain anonymous, however we do have a few requirements which must be met for an application to be considered.
1) Every application must be signed, with complete contact information provided for both nominator and nominee.
2) At least three references must be listed for verification purposes
3) Nominees must reside in the Merrill-Gleason area. Services provided by nominated non-profit organizations must be focused in the Merrill-Gleason area.
Since its inception in 2017, the Community New Year Ride has hosted four events and raised nearly $5,000 in support of fellow community members. The organization expanded to include three events in 2018, each being based upon a recreational ride of some type (snowmobile, ATV/UTV or motorcycle) and feature additional festivities ranging from live music, raffles, poker runs and dice runs to brat frys, bean bag tournaments and a chili cook off.
“Last year was our first year taking applications for support recipients,” explains New Year Ride Chair Jeremy Ratliff.
“We reached out to the community and the response was amazing! We received several applications which made the choice very difficult. Our five-member governance board ultimately decided on two support recipients; local cancer warrior Anne Germain and the Food for Kids Program of Merrill. Our January event in support of Anne was amazing! So many turned out to join us for an entire day of activities and an evening of live music courtesy of Wausau-based Bobby Blues and the Tortured Soul Band. Our first ever ‘Sunday Funday’ ATV/UTV ride in June, and Rosco’s Ride a few weeks ago, were also very successful events in support of the Food for Kids program. We’re looking forward to February and bringing the community together for another full day of fun and support for a neighbor in need.”
The organization’s expansion to host additional events came in large part from support of local businesses, and may not have been possible otherwise.
“We have had other local businesses jump on board to support our activities and help spread the word. We can’t begin to express our appreciation for Chris and Karen Streich at Hub Inn and Tracy and Ken Zettelmeier of Z’s Fork Horners in Gleason. Without their generous support, and efforts to promote the ‘Sunday Funday’ ride in June, the event most likely would not have been nearly as successful. Ken and Tracy have also generously offered to host our event in February. Also a very special thank you to AmericInn General Manager Ernie Stender for generously giving us a spacious new home for our monthly meetings. We welcome and look forward to forming additional partnerships in the community as we move forward.”
Submitted applications will be evaluated by the Merrill Community New Year Ride Governance Board at it’s Oct. 16 meeting. The meeting is set for 7 PM at the AmericInn. One application will be selected for each of the organization’s three events set for February, June and September of 2019. The October meeting, as every meeting, is open to the public.