Sun shines Saturday at Steel Horse Rally

The roar of motorcycles echoed off the downtown Fort Smith walls of buildings until 2 a.m. Saturday.

Saturday morning, it was all about the sun.

After days of cloudy skies and heavy rains, the sun welcomed those to the Fort Smith Entertainment District.

Norman "Judge Ruger," Evans of Van Buren, parked along Garrison Avenue.

"I love the Steel Horse Rally. I'm glad they've finally got it coming back into Fort Smith. It brings all the brothers and the sisters together and everybody just has a fantastic time," Evans said.

The band Messer rejuvenates a crowd at around 10 p.m. Saturday during the Steel Horse Rally in a live performance off Fort Smith's Garrison Ave.

Kaysi Featherston was facetiming her son who had been with his grandfather in Illinois when a perceived prank call turned out to be a message about a motorcycle prize.

"Then they said, 'Well, we drew your name, you won the bike' and I'm like, 'Oh my gosh!" the Fort Smith resident said. "And my husband, his eyes got really big and he looked at me and I just started jumping up and down like 'Oh my gosh, they drew my name!"

Donated by retired navy man Keith Gray, proceeds from a raffle that cost $5 per person were split between the Marine Corps League and Students Against Drugs and Alcohol/Serving and Defending Americans Arkansas. According to Gray, the MCL did more military honors than any other military service organization in the state of Arkansas, with 286 funerals last year.

Many of those funeral escorts were by members of SADA, who does the "Mission in America" program that buried six veterans and plan to bury 91 more uninterred. They also step in for other volunteer projects to assist veteran families and other projects involving children, "anything we can do," according to executive director Tom Ross. This includes supplying for foster care children in Crawford County and Sebastian County, in addition to providing about 3,000 pounds of dog food a week to three different animal shelters.

The cause it went to influenced Featherston to buy five tickets at the Fairgrounds in December. She walks away with a 2001 Honda Valkyrie that has won numerous "Best in Show" awards.

"Whenever we started talking to them, I was like, 'I've never heard of this, Oh my gosh, this is amazing,' because we have to watch out for our children," Featherston said.

"This is a different time that we're living in. We (adults) grew up in a completely different world and I mean, they've got social media nowadays. It's just so different and we have to be advocating for our kids and warning them of the dangers that are out there and get justice to try to protect our kids."

Van Buren's Coyote and 25-30 other bikers stood outside of Garrison Avenue's Steps Family Resource Center in an effort to raise awareness for a group who may help support the next child abuse victim in court.

"We usually get referrals from places like the police or sometimes just the parents," said the public relations' member whose real name is kept secret for security purposes. "So whenever a child has been abused in whatever fashion and is going to have to go to court and testify, they get in touch with us.

"So the defense lawyers will do what I like to call the 'dirty trick' and they'll put everybody on the witness list, mom, dad, grandparents, everybody. What that means is that people cannot be in the courtroom when a child is testifying, so that leaves this kid that is sometimes 5, 6 years old alone in the courtroom, lawyers hammering at them from both sides, their abuser sitting only a few feet away and it's scary for them."

The group is a part of Bikers Against Child Abuse, started in 1995 in Utah by a play therapist and part-time Brigham Young faculty member, and it has since become an international nonprofit organization.

Coyote said members from the River Valley chapter raised awareness at the Steel Horse Rally by handing out pamphlets, stickers, temporary tattoos and candy in front of Steps since 11 a.m.

The schedule for the day kickstarted at 10 a.m. with the Cops and Cones competition downtown.

Brian "Shameless" Shafer, rode his bike with flags down Garrison in the bright sunshine, weaving around a few cones before the event started.

The back of his leather jacket showed his support for veterans.

"I think this is going to be a good year after coming off everyone being cooped up and hemmed up and we're just out here having a good time supporting our freedoms that our veterans fought and died for," Shafer said.

Bikers from Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas Arkansas and other states parked along Garrison Avenue.

Police officers showed up in teams ready to compete in the Cops and Cones motorcycle course.

Along Garrison, Donna Bohnenstiehl wore red chaps and rode a red Harley-Davidson. She arrived with Ricky Bohnenstiehl and Phil and Sherry Copeland, all of Ketchum, Oklahoma. Their trip to Fort Smith took two hours after rainy skies cleared.

The Vendors Village had plenty of patches and leather goods for all motorcycle styles and culture.

Events for Saturday end with Messer on the main stage near N. 6th Street and Garrison. Hillbilly Vegas, with their top 40 Billboard rock hit "Shake It Like a Hillbilly," played Friday at The Majestic and Saturday at Hero's.

Other bands rocked with red dirt country and southern rock sounds such as The Infamous Outlaws of the River Valley, a band blaring sounds from downtown venues Friday and Saturday.

More than 130,000 bikers were estimated to make the trip to Fort Smith this year. Organizer Dennis Snow did not have a crowd estimate Saturday morning Crowds continued to increase in size Saturday with sunny skies and warmer temperatures after a foggy morning along the Arkansas River.

You can follow Bryant Roche on Twitter @BRocheSports and you can email him at BRoche@gannett.com. Other Times Record staff members contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Sun appears for Steel Horse Rally