Local arthritis fundraiser River Ride hoping to grow

Late Saturday afternoon, four friends from the South Hills completed the fourth annual River Ride to raise funds for the Arthritis Foundation, coasting to a stop near the fountain in Point State Park and a quiet celebration.

Looking a bit drained — having endured a bee sting, two flat tires and climbing over a fallen tree — they were happy mostly to finally have ridden in good weather and gotten close to their goal of raising $5,000.

“It was great,” said Upper St. Clair resident Jeff Krakoff, 52 and a founder of the event, who has arthritis. “It wasn’t rainy or cold” as it was each of the last two years.

The fundraiser Mr. Krakoff and his friends started three years ago has struggled to grow beyond their own family and friends, raising about $5,000 each year through their site, RiverRide100.com.

“I sometimes get frustrated because I have this vision of this being a big event and raising $100,000, and I don’t think we’re doing enough,” Mr. Krakoff said before Saturday’s ride.

But that may be about to change.

Kristina Waltman, executive director of the Pittsburgh office of the Arthritis Foundation, has worked with Mr. Krakoff and his friends the last three years.

Though Mr. Krakoff and his group might not feel like they have contributed enough, she said the idea of a bike riding fundraiser is something that is perfect for the region and could become something much bigger.

“For the Pittsburgh community, it’s ideal because of where Pittsburgh is headed with the bike lanes and the mayor’s [Bill Peduto’s] interest in biking,” she said.

She said she is contemplating asking the national organization if it would make the River Ride an officially sanctioned Arthritis Foundation event, something that would raise its profile and provide resources to take it beyond the group of South Hills friends who started it.

“Jeff has put all the pillars in place to go nationwide with this,” she said. “And the Arthritis Foundation wants to support him to do that.”

Whether the foundation takes it over and makes it an officially sponsored event is something that has to be approved by the national organization, she said.

One of the ideas they are considering is taking the ride back to its origin.

The idea began in 2013 when Mr. Krakoff and some friends who regularly played pickup soccer on Sunday mornings, three of them with arthritis, decided they wanted to do something to help the Arthritis Foundation.

That also happened to be the year the Great Allegheny Passage trail system was completed making it possible to ride, uninterrupted, all 334 miles from Washington, D.C., to Pittsburgh.

So, that first year nine of them rode the whole route, taking five days and finishing at the fountain at Point State Park. But because it took five days, it meant taking off from work.

So, looking for something they could do in one day, for the last three rides, Mr. Krakoff and several friends have done the same 106-mile ride on the Great Allegheny Passage from Rockwood, Somerset County, to Point State Park.

Those first three rides raised about $17,000 combined for the Arthritis Foundation.

Part of what is being contemplated for a pitch to the national organization now is to go back to something like the first ride that Mr. Krakoff and his friends did from Washington to Pittsburgh, or vice versa, or both ways

“It connects a couple different and important markets” between Pittsburgh and Washington, said Mr. Krakoff, who owns a public relations and communications company.

Ms. Waltman said the markets it would cover, combined with the fact that the Arthritis Foundation does not have any official bicycling fundraisers in the region, make it a natural.

“We’re in the brain-storming stage. We have to sit down and talk about it,” she said. “But there is no reason not to do it.”

Mr. Krakoff, who has battled his arthritis for 21 years, said his desire to raise money for the foundation is still driven by the same reason: “I’ve done well on medication that wasn’t available till just 10 years ago, so, I’ve benefited from the research.

“I just want to give back a little bit.”

Sean D. Hamill: shamill@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2579 or Twitter: @SeanDHamill