An Easter weekend tradition in Iowa since the 1960s returns this year with the Pony Express Ride to benefit Camp Sunnyside, for children and adults with and without disabilities.
Horseback riders from across the state will converge to help deliver donations to the Easter Seals camp in Des Moines.
Lynn Bumsted, of Unionville, is president of the Pony Express Riders of Iowa. Bumsted says the riders will arrive at mid-afternoon Saturday for the ride to the camp.
“The individual rides, we’ll meet at Polk County Public Works, there in Des Moines, and then we gather there and we parade to Camp Sunnyside after that,” Bumsted says. “We usually arrive there between 3:30 or 4 o’clock.”
Through the years, participants have ridden their horses despite the heat, the rain, or the snow. The annual Pony Express Dance will be held at the Lake Robbins Ballroom near Woodward on Saturday night with a breakfast to follow for the dancers.
Bumstead says the riders always bring in generous donations for Camp Sunnyside.
“We have raised over $12 million,” she says. “Each year, it ranges between $175,000 to $250,000, so it doesn’t maybe feel like so much in that year, but once you add it all up, it’s a lot and it truly adds up and matters.”
Donations can be made to the Easter Seals of Iowa or to the Pony Express Riders of Iowa.
(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)