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Riding to help find a cure for multiple sclerosis

© Brian Salisbury

On a rainy Sunday morning in October, I cruised through Staten Island, Brooklyn and Manhattan with close to 100 other motorcycle riders to raise money for the fight against multiple sclerosis.

It was satisfying to support an event dedicated to curing this devastating disease. Also, riding in formation along some of the most heavily traveled roads in New York City with a police escort was, for me, a unique experience.

We had the streets and bridges entirely to ourselves as police cars with lights flashing and sirens blaring raced ahead and along side of our half-mile-long caravan to clear the way.

Supporting the MS Research & Treatment Center

Staten Island's Gateway Rotary Club organized the rally in an effort to raise $25,000 for the Multiple Sclerosis Research & Treatment Center at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan.

MS, a disease that attacks the central nervous system, affects more than 400,000 people in the United States.

In addition to providing the highest quality and most comprehensive patient care, the MS center at St. Luke's-Roosevelt is conducting groundbreaking research to learn more about the disease and, ultimately, to find a cure.

As the MS center director, internationally recognized MS expert and board certified neurologist, Saud A. Sadiq, M.D., leads the center's research and patient treatment teams.

"Our vision at the MS center," Dr. Sadiq says, "is to hasten the day when we can effectively and consistently stop and reverse the damage MS has caused, and help to free people of this disease."

Rain thwarted the rally's first attempt

Just two weeks earlier, rain postponed the Rotary Club's first Motorcycle Rally for Multiple Sclerosis. However, on this day, the riders and the Rotary were determined to put it all together.

Shortly after noon, the worst of the rain had passed. Before we mounted up, New York City Deputy Chief Chaplain Robert Romano blessed the group and wished us a safe ride.

"The weather can't hold these guys down," event co-organizer and Rotarian Vito Cardinale said.

Cardinale and his fellow Rotarians aimed to have more than 600 riders participate in the event. But the foul weather, combined with the rainout two weeks earlier, scaled down the number of participants to the most dedicated.

What we lacked in numbers, we made up in perseverance.

As we rumbled out of Staten Island's Midland Beach, a phalanx of police cars escorted the caravan toward the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

Traveling into the canyons of New York City

Our route ran from Midland Beach down Capodanno Boulevard and over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge into Brooklyn.

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