Kitsap kick starts first-ever Ride For a Cure today

Amid a host of fund raisers that have dotted the county already in 2007, there’s a new event in Kitsap with its monetary crosshairs fixed on finding a cure for, or at least contributing to the research in the fields of cancer and juvenile diabetes and Alzheimer’s.

Kitsap’s inaugural Ride for a Cure and Hot Rod Show, which will start its engines at 9 a.m. this Saturday at the Kitsap Mall, is raising money for four different research foundations: the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, Alzheimer’s Association and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Participants can choose which of the organizations they would like their registration fee to go to or any combination thereof. The fee per rider or car show entry is $25 in advance, $30 at the event. Check out www.geocities.com/kitsaprideforacure/2007 for more details.

Beginning and ending in the north parking lot of Kitsap Mall, the Ride for a Cure route will take bikers and riders across the scenic highways of Kitsap and North Mason counties. During the interim, the Hot Rod Show — with all cars pre-1973 — will keep things happening along with food, prizes, games, live entertainment and more back at the mall parking lot.

Rock and roll cover bands — Tres Hombres and the Joey James Dean Band — which fashion nearly everything classic rock, from that little old band from Texas — ZZ Top (Tres Hombres) — to the Eagles’ “Life in the Fastlane” (Joey James Dean) and the Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Woman” (Joey James Dean). Additionally, both bands also harbor original tunes blended into the mix of the songs you’ve undoubtedly heard for 30-some-odd years.

The Ride for a Cure live music kicks off around 5 p.m.

Earlier in the afternoon — around 2 p.m. — the Seattle Cossacks will literally be taking the event’s entertainment to new heights.

The Cossacks — which was the title for an elite group of Southern European horsemen during czarist times — are a group of high-rise stunt riders that have been tooling their vintage 1930s- and 40s-era Harleys around the Puget Sound and beyond since their bike models were the next big thing. As an organization, the Cossacks have nearly 80 years experience stunt riding, human pyramiding and piggy backing atop the moving motorcycles.

“No ropes, no props, no skyhooks, no gimmicks — they just climb,” their Web site — www.seattlecossacks.com — says.

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