Hot Harley Nights Continues to Raise Money for Make-A-Wish Foundation – KDLT News

SIOUX FALLS, S.D.- Thousands of motorcycles descended on Sioux Falls this weekend fora local annual event that helps a foundation grant wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses. For the past 22 years, organizers of Hot Harley Nights have been hosting the event for biker enthusiasts across the country to come together to explore the city of Sioux Falls and raise money for South Dakotas Make-A-Wish Foundation.

This is a great opportunity to give back to a foundation, that gave us such a blessing in our life, says the mother of Make-A-Wish recipient Marta Fandel.

Its the Fandels way of saying thank you to the organization, that was there for them during hard times. For three years now, the family has been volunteering at the Hot Harley Nights on behalf of Make-A-Wish South Dakota. In 2013, their son Kaiden was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis.

There were times, where I didnt really feel like I was a kid. I mean, I felt like I was dealing with some hard stuff and I was forced to grow up really quick, but now Im doing good, says 2015 Make-A-Wish recipient Kaiden Fandel.

After being nominated by his school nurse to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Kaiden and his family were able to have his wish of going to Hawaii granted.

Brought light to our life, that was kind of dark at the time; it was a great escape from all of the medical issues that we had been facing, says Marta Fandel.

Now the family hopes they can help other families wishes get granted by volunteering and raising awareness about the foundation.

Helping out; its nice to give back to something that helped us out. Its nice to maybe provide that for other kids that are in need of that also, says Kaiden Fandel.

And the volunteers and organizers of Hot Harley Nights have the same mission. For the past 21 years, they have raised 2.6 million for Make-A-Wish.

Its really amazing to see the power of a wish and what it does for the kids after all their doctor visits and hospital stays. Even for the family that does go through a lot during that time period too, says Hot Harley Nights Chair Char Roth.

Organizers say their hope is to help as many children and families and their goal is to continue making the event grow even bigger.

Planning is a big part of the Hot Harley Nights. Its a lot of the little things that we dont want the public to see, that we do behind the scenes. We have already actually started planning for 2018 already and beyond, says Roth.

Hot Harley Nights started on Thursday and will wrap up Sunday afternoon. All the proceeds from this weekend will go towards Make-A-Wish.

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Hot Harley Nights Continues to Raise Money for Make-A-Wish Foundation - KDLT News