But like everything else amid COVID-19, changes have proven necessary. And while things won’t be the same, Moose Jaw Cycle Association president Murray Roney is hoping things will turn out as positive as possible.
With that in mind, the 2020 edition of the Toy Run will take place on Sept. 19, and will take a format rather familiar to anyone who has been on Main Street on weekends this summer.
“We’ve noticed the way the car clubs have been doing it is just cruising Main Street a bit, so we’re going to follow them in that idea,” Roney said. “We’ll just go up and down Main Street and then head over the Salvation Army Church. They’ll have everything set up there for social distancing and everything like that and it’ll just be a drop and go.”
The basics are still in place — parade participants are asked to bring a new and unwrapped toy to the Salvation Army, where they’ll be sorted and distributed to families in need of Christmas gifts for their youngsters.
The run itself will start around 1:30 p.m., without the usual gathering on Manitoba Street. Riders are asked to simply show up on Main Street around that time, ride Main Street and drop off their toys at the church between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. The traditional mass gathering for coffee won’t take place this year due to crowd number rules in put in place by the Saskatchewan Health Authority.
“That’s why we decided not to have the meeting at the start down on Manitoba Street or the gathering at the church either… it’s quite a crowd of people to try and ramrod into any position, so we felt this would be the better way to go,” Roney said.
Last year, around 300 bikers took part in the event, and with gatherings still limited to 30 people in any one area in the province, one can see the concern.
“Even if you’re a small group and five or six of you want to go, you can ride up and down Main Street and then head up there and drop your toys off as a small group,” Roney suggested. “We just don’t want anything more than the 30 people in one area, so this is what we’re going to try.”
The hope is that even with the changes, the Moose Jaw community will still get behind the event and support the Salvation Army and their quest to make sure every child has a gift under the tree on Christmas Eve.
“Hopefully we have a decent turnout,” Roney said. “I think people’s hearts are in the right place so I expect they’ll do well for us and we’ll have another great year.”
