In December 2008 two-year-old Katelynn Stinnett was living at home with her father and older brother. In a horrifyingly tragic turn of events, a friend of the little girl’s father beat, raped and sodomized the girl requiring nearly 400 stitches just to put Katelynn’s groin area back together. A week later, Stinnett died from the injuries she’d received.
In an effort to bring awareness to Stinnett’s case and to raise money for child abuse programs, a group of bikers called Biker or Not, based in Kentucky suggested organizing a national ride in Stinnett’s name. On June 13, kickstands across the United States and the world – a group of bikers from Australia joined the cause – went up and rides began.
In Wyoming, the ride was organized by the group American Bikers for Charity led by Cindy "Mushu" McMillen. The ride started in Cheyenne and made a stop at Pal’s Pub in Pine Bluffs before continuing on past Albin, through LaGrange and back to Cheyenne concluding the ride at American Veterans Post 10 for a total of 137 miles.
"The first thing you should know about ABFC is that we aren’t a traditional motorcycle club," said Mushu.
"We don’t have a command structure," Mushu explained, "If someone wants to put together a ride to raise money for a cause, then that person can be the chairperson for the ride. Everyone in the club gets to vote on whether we do the ride and if it goes, we do it."
To bring the Katelynn Stinnett National Memorial Ride together, Mushu said she started calling her friends and they responded in droves.
"We had about 25 or so people who came out and volunteered to help us put this all together," Mushu said.
Around Laramie County, the group got bars and other locations to hold 50/50 raffles and set out donation cans.
"We probably put out 10 donation cans around Cheyenne and Pine Bluffs," said Mushu, who went on to say that the donation can at the Pine Bluffs Conoco, by far, raised the most amount of money.
Following the ride, an after party at AmVets Post 10 ensued with a raffle led by auctioneer and county commissioner Jeff Ketchum.
"Jeff was just absolutely fantastic," said volunteer coordinator for the Stinnett run, Heidi "Raven" Barton.
All told the group raised nearly $4,000 which they’ll donate to Prevent Child Abuse Wyoming.
"That’s one of our big things," said Mushu, "making sure the money stays local and has an impact here in our community."
"This isn’t just about bikers," added Raven, "this is about the community coming together."
With the successful completion of the Stinnett run, the ABFC is considering other runs including one for deployed Wyoming service members and for the mentally disabled. In addition to the other rides, the group intends to make the Stinnett run an annual event. Mushu acknowledged that kickstands across the nation might
not go up together, but an annual ride is in the works all the same. Mushu then noted the case against Stinnett’s accused murderer is set to begin Sept. 10 and the group might move the ride to coincide with the court date.
"One of the things we keep hearing is how surprised people are that we were able to pull this off in such a short amount of time," explained Mushu as she acknowledged the volumes of help she received and the donations and sponsors that came together.
"We couldn’t have done this without all the people who volunteered and all the sponsors that so generously gave."
"This really was a dream come true," said Raven. "We brought the community and a bunch of bikers together to do this, to do something good, and it went better than we could have hoped."
