Local Snowmobilers Host Million-Dollar Ride to Fight Multiple Sclerosis

Twenty-three years after they began hosting snowmobile rides to raise money to combat multiple sclerosis, Sturgeon Bay resident Bob Schmidt and his fellow riders will finally hit the million-dollar mark with a set of fundraising rides that will take place from Jan. 21 – 27.

“This year we will attain that figure, I can assure you,” said Schmidt, who has personally raised $400,000 of that million dollars. “It’s going to be the culmination of a 23-year effort, and it’s going to be great. All we need is some snow.”

When Schmidt started the ride, he didn’t even know anyone with multiple sclerosis (MS), which is a central nervous disease that interrupts the flow of information from the brain to the body. On a trip with friends, Schmidt ran into a fellow snowmobiler involved with a different MS snowmobile tour, and he thought the idea was a great one.

“Sometimes snowmobilers get that sort of reckless image, like motorcyclers get sometimes,” said Schmidt. “If you want to change that image, there’s nothing better than a charity ride.”

And while he’s been raising money, Schmidt and the riders he’s gotten to sign up for his tours have been having a lot of fun doing it. The rides have included as few as three people and as many as 20, and the groups have taken tours around Minnesota, Wisconsin, and even Canada.

“If there’s ice and snow, we’ve been there,” said Schmidt.

This year’s event includes a warm-up ride, so to speak, from Sturgeon Bay to Washington Island and back on Jan. 22 and 23 that Schmidt said he’s still accepting riders for, as well as a 210-mile ride on Jan. 25 and 26 around Door, Kewaunee, and Brown counties. Schmidt said he’s still accepting riders for the long ride as well, but they’d be required to raise $650 in order to participate.

After the ride, there will be a banquet and celebration at the Neighborhood Pub and Grill, hosted by Schmidt’s fellow rider and Neighborhood Pub owner Paul Stoltman.

The pub will also be hosting a vintage snowmobile ride and silent auction, which starts at 3 pm, to benefit the fundraiser on Jan. 27.

The money raised by the rides is donated to the Wisconsin chapter of the National MS Society. Maureen Waslicki, a marketing-communications director there, said research into MS treatment has exploded in the last 15 years, and that explosion has been helped in large part by fundraisers like the snowmobile rides Schmidt has been running.

“That’s in large part due to support from people like Bob Schmidt and other MS Snowmobile Tour and Million Dollar ride riders,” said Waslicki. “The money they raise helps the National MS Society continue to push forward in efforts to stop MS progression, restore function that’s been lost, and end the disease forever.”

While a million dollars is a significant number, Schmidt, who was recently diagnosed with leukemia, is hoping he’ll to make it to another significant number, the 25th year of the ride.

“It’s been a passion of mine,” he said. “It’s hard to explain because anything I tell you would be illogical. I always tell people, if you want to feel good about something, get involved in a charity.”