On June 26, 2016, the 15th annual Ride to Ripley will honor the memory of 2008 Tecumseh graduate and 24 year old organ donor Sarah Renee’ Rhoads. The event is being hosted by Buckminn’s D & D Harley Davidson and is being organized by a board overseeing funds to support organ donation and literacy. All proceeds from the event will be given to Life Connection Ohio and the Sarah Renee’ Rhoads Reading Fund.
In 2014, Sarah Rhoads was working for a skydiving business when an accident with a propeller blade on the tarmac took the 24-year-old’s life. According to Rhoads’ mother, Becky Winkler of Xenia, Sarah decided to become an organ donor on the day she picked up her first license at 16 years of age. “It was entirely her decision and something none of us ever thought about again until the day she died,” Winkler said. Rhoads’ lungs, kidneys, pancreas, and heart saved 5 lives. In addition, Sarah is now a part of Wright State’s optometry program, helping facilitate the study of glaucoma. The realization of this reality is at once difficult and encouraging to her family and friends.
Winkler received her most recent thank you note from one of Sarah’s organ recipients in May and has been in contact with three of the people whose lives were saved by her loss. According to Winkler, her daughter’s lungs were given to a mother of three teenage daughters. “You can’t explain the mix of emotions you feel when someone else is alive because of your child but your child is no longer with you,” Winkler said. Sarah was Winkler’s only daughter.
Life Connection of Ohio was the organ donation group that connected Sarah’s organs with their recipients. “Life connection is really there for donor families after the loss of their loved ones,” Winkler said. She and her ex-husband regularly volunteer at Life Connection in the wake of their daughter’s death. Their partnership with the organization has been cemented all the more by their commitment to raise support for other organ donors and their families. Local businesses across the Miami Valley have stepped up to show their support for Ride to Ripley and $7,000 worth of merchandise has already been given to raffle at the event. T-shirts, door prizes, and games will commence at the ride’s starting point and destination.
In addition to drawing awareness to organ donation, the Sarah Renee Rhoads’ Reading Fund, was begun by Winkler because of her daughter’s love of literature. Money from this fund will go to purchase books for school reading programs. Winkler is personally involved in this project and sees it as a way that she can honor her daughter by encouraging the hopes and aspirations of future generations. “When I go in to deliver books to children at the schools, I’m going to think of it as Sarah giving them the tools to go for their dreams,” Winkler said.
The Ride to Ripley begins at 10 a.m. on June 26 at Buckminn’s D & D, 1213 Cincinnati Avenue in Xenia, Ohio. Directions for the ride and destination information will be given the day of the event. For more information, a facebook event search will bring up details or call Buckminn’s at 937-376-3344. All vehicles are welcome to join the ride.
