Highground renames its bicycle tour
‘Heroes Ride’ set for July 31-Aug. 2
The Highground Annual Bike Tour will continue in 2020 with a new name and its own brand.
The history of the annual bike tour goes back to the first days of The Highground Veterans Memorial Park. In an effort to gain more recognition for the ride, a change was made to increase awareness by promoting a new brand.
The original Heroes Ride was completed by Thomas Kingsbury last summer. He traveled over 1,500 miles around the state, creating a significant amount of attention and raising the question—how could The Highground keep the momentum going for the annual bike tour?
“There is a vast number of rides in the state of Wisconsin and in the Midwest. The question was how to separate ourselves from the pack and be easily identifi able to those who may be interested in what we are riding for,” said Ike Rebout, chief of staff of The Highground. “We learned so much from the Heroes Ride on the marketing end in 2019, and we really felt that by solidifying the brand we could bring a significant amount of support to the annual bike tour. This ride exists and continues to be successful because of the dedicated route leaders and riders who have done so much for our organization for over 30 years. We want to give the riders every opportunity to succeed even beyond what they have already done.”
The symbolism of the brand is significant as it honors the heroes who are no longer with us, and compliments the riders, who in their own right, are heroes to The Highground.
The annual bike tour, which is July 31-Aug. 2 this year, has raised over $450,000 a year for the park. These funds are used to expand programming to support Veterans in the surrounding community and make improvements to the park.
Members of The Highground Heroes Ride and The Highground Veterans Memorial Park will be taking the marketing efforts to the public as they travel to the Madison Biko Expo in March and the Milwaukee Bike Expo in April to sign up new riders for the event.
Routes take two to three days to complete and start from five different points in Wisconsin — Hayward, New Richmond, La Crosse, Madison and Appleton — with all routes ending at The Highground.
The routes are independent and led by experienced route leaders and SAG personnel. Participants must select the route they wish to join and contact that route leader for details about that specifi c route.
For more information, to sign up, or to raise funds to help support this cause, go to thehighgroundheroesride.com.
Editor’s note: The picture above ran with incorrect information in last week’s edition.
