Community Corner
Cooking Up Some Love For The 20th Annual Cookson Hills Toy Run
Fundraising events are in the works for a wildly popular motorcycle ride that ends with a face-to-face gift exchange at Evans Park in Seffner.
The annual Cookson Hills Toy Run returns for a 20th year in December, the brainchild of Sheri and Bill Brown, who over the years have supported the effort and kept it afloat in good times and bad.
"We've put more than $40,000 of our own money into it over 19 years," Brown said, on line for lunch, at the June 25 Greater Riverview Chamber of Commerce meeting at The Regent in Riverview. "It's all about taking care of the forgotten, the ones falling through the cracks, the children, the people with special needs, the seniors and the veterans."
Brown, who was a finalist last year for the Sharon Carter Community Service Award, given annually by the Greater Seffner Area Chamber of Commerce, said two events have been scheduled to help support this year's run, scheduled for Dec. 1. Soon to be announced are the dates and times for a bluegrass, country rock concert in September and a spaghetti dinner and auction at the American Legion in Seffner.
Billed as the "Down Home Make You Feel Good All Over Cookson Hills Toy Run," the event attracts hundreds of motorcycle riders and hundreds of gift recipients at Evans Park in the Greater Brandon area of Seffner. Count among them numerous riders dressed as Santa, Mrs. Claus and elves.
In that group last year was Bill Longenbarger, of the Riverview Moose Riders, sporting a black leather vest atop his red-and-white Santa outfit.
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"To see the smiles on the kids faces, that's the main thing," he said, about his desire to join the run. "Wherever we can go, to meet the needs of the kids in our community, that's what we do."
The Cookson Hills Toy Run is a 20-mile trek that begins at the Veterans Memorial Park and Museum in Tampa, at 3609 North U.S. Highway 301, just south of the Florida State Fairgrounds, and ends at Evans Park in Seffner, adjacent to Burnett Middle School, at 1004 South Kingsway Road.
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For 19 years Sheri and Bill Brown have been organizing, running and advertising the toy run, which calls upon motorcyclists to ride bearing holiday gifts in a show of compassionate solidarity for special needs people of all ages and now, as well, seniors, veterans with no family and the “forgotten children” of eastern Hillsborough County.
Roger Mailhot, whose bike last year was sported with an American flag, served as the "flag bike" for the Patriot Guard Riders.
"This [toy run] is so different from all the others because one, you can wrap your gifts, and two, you give the gifts to the children," Mailhot said at the time. "Most of the other [toy drives], the gifts have to be unwrapped and you don't even know who the gifts go to."
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