Annual Charity Motorcycle Rally Fun Kicks Off AAMGA Conference

Mary Zeller, vice president and manager of Seaboard Underwriters office in Council Bluffs, Iowa, hasn’t ridden a motorcycle or a Harley-Davidson, but will play a major role in the April 29 “Managing General Angels” third annual “Charity Motorcycle Rally” in Daytona Beach, Fla. Proceeds from the event will go to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation in New Canaan, Conn., to aid research to find a cure for multiple myeloma.

The Managing General Angels were founded in 2003 by Bernd G. Heinze, American Association of Managing General Agents executive director. The rally is now an annual tradition every year at the beginning of AAMGA’s conference.

“Our goal was to provide an activity at which motorcycle enthusiasts within the group could meet folks in a way in which the business aspect is totally removed from the equation and is replaced with a personal event among like-minded business professionals who band together to donate the proceeds raised by the event to a worthwhile charity,” Heinze explained. “When we envisioned this event, the objective was to design a social event with a worthy purpose among AAMGA members. We were surprised to see how many of us were motorcycle enthusiasts.”

Zeller will be among those to receive AAMGA’s “Certified Wholesaler” designation May 1 at the annual conference in Orlando. Mary was studying to be certified and had just completed her bookwork and project when in July 2004 she learned she had multiple myeloma. She spent the past nine months fighting the disease, receiving all types of treatments to enable her to be able to receive a vital and very painful bone marrow treatment.

Joseph P. Hutelmyer, her boss, and AAMGA’s president, assuming that Mary wouldn’t attend the Orlando conference, recently attempted to give her the pin designating her certification. She refused to take it, saying there was “no-way she was going to miss the conference.” As it stands, Mary will not be able to attend, because there is a high likelihood she will be healthy enough to receive her treatment in early May.

“When I heard about Mary’s recently diagnosed condition, it was obvious the Managing General Angels should contribute the proceeds from our rally this year in her name to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation,” Heinze said.

More than two-dozen motorcycle enthusiasts are expected to meet in Orlando for the event and will travel to Daytona Beach, Fla., known for its motorcycle-friendly atmosphere and home of the annual “Bike Week.”

Roadmaster Don Nicholson, of Irving B. Green & Associates in Orlando, has mapped out an exciting excursion during which he will be assisted by AAMGA past-president Ronnie Moore and Heinze. Although Nicholson is keeping the exact route “top secret” the group will “cruise” for four hours down U.S. Highway A1A, along Daytona’s hard sand beaches and culminate the ride “hanging out” for a late lunch at a well-known “biker-bar.”

“Each participant donates $50 to ride in the event,” Nicholson explained. “Everyone has fun and the proceeds go to a worthy cause.”

Sponsors hope the 2005 event will far-outstrip previous years.

The 2004 rally in Scottscale, Ariz., had more than 36 participants. During the event they rode Harley’s across the scenic and HOT Arizona desert. They rode for four hours, past Desert Ridge and into the mountainous Tonto National Forest. They navigated winding mountain roads and paused beside a scenic mountain lake, where they had soft drinks and then rode back to Scottsdale. The proceeds of the rally, $1,125, were donated to the Boy’s and Girl’s Club of Bowling Green, Ky.

In 2003, when the rally began in Boca Raton, Fla., about a dozen riders participated and $1,000 was raised for the Food Bank, a local charity for the homeless. During that event motorcyclists rode north from Boca Raton to West Palm Beach.

The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation was started in 1998 by twin sisters Karen Andrews and Kathy Giusti after Kathy was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.

Today, MMRF is the world’s number one private funder of myeloma-specific research. It has raised more than $33 million to fund 51 laboratories worldwide. It channels 92 percent of dollars raised into supporting cutting-edge myeloma research. Its tremendous investment has already resulted in significant advances in the field of myeloma, including pivotal research that contributed to the approval Velcade, the first myeloma drug in more than a decade.

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