Final Fred Perry Motorcycle Benefit Run is Sunday

By BILLY LUDT

bludt@vindy.com

AUSTINTOWN

The Perrys pulled into Green Haven Memorial Gardens on Friday in proper family fashion, astride motorcycles.

The trip is a tradition that precedes a decades-spanning celebration of the life of father, grandfather and renowned motorcycle mechanic, Fred Perry.

Friday, the family paid its respects and rode from Green Haven on a predetermined route that hundreds of others on motorcycles will do Sunday.

The 27th – and final – annual Fred Perry Motorcycle Benefit Run begins Sunday at 1 p.m. at Austintown Plaza, 6000 Mahoning Ave. Registration for the run is $15 per driver, $10 for a passenger, and begins at 10 a.m. and goes to noon. Preregistration is available at O’Donold’s Irish Pub, 6000 Mahoning Ave., today from 10 a.m. to noon.

Paying drivers and riders at The Fred Perry Run are given a food voucher and a door-prize ticket, and the first 750 registered receive a pin commemorating the year.

The run’s 70-plus-mile route is given to drivers the day of the event.

The Fred Perry Run wasn’t exactly a collective motorcycle trip to start. The first year it was an appreciation day put on by friends for Fred, who was living with cancer at the time.

His friends worked to raise money for medical treatments, but Fred never accepted the money.

“He never had any medical insurance or anything,” said Dale Perry, Fred’s son. “He always insisted on giving the money to the kids instead.”

Fred made it to the first celebration, but by the next year he wasn’t able to. He died July 15, 1991, at 67.

The event turned into a motorcycle run that gained traction and became revered among regional, out-of-state and a few international motorcycle riders, honoring the late mechanic.

“We’ve got people that come to every run there’s ever been,” said Neil Perry, Fred’s grandson.

From age 16, Fred was riding motorcycles – and motorcycles only, his family said.

While attending Woodrow Wilson High, Fred was the only person who rode a motorcycle to school every day. When he and his wife, Dorothy, were married, she wasn’t aware that Fred didn’t own a car.

Fred’s dedication to his work as a mechanic at Harley-Davidson of Youngstown and Warren quickly gave him a high reputation among area motorcycle enthusiasts.

“He would help people every day or any part of the night to fix a problem with their motorcycle,” his daughter-in-law Linda Perry said.

Fred’s tenacity for driving in frigid weather earned him the Polar Bear Patch from the Pirate Motorcycle Club, a group of motorcycle riders from the Youngstown area in the 1930s.

All benefits from the run go to critically ill children from the Mahoning Valley. The run has raised proceeds anywhere between $5,000 to $10,000 consistently every year.

The family made the decision to make this year’s run the last about two months ago.

“It’s just kind of run its course,” Linda said. “The family is getting smaller, and the people who help us every year – well, they’re as old as we are.”

“It’s a lot of work,” Dale added.

The one-day event is a year-round effort for the Perry family and supporting crew of friends.

“We’re all sad about it,” Linda said. “We don’t want to see it end.”