Today we’d like to introduce you to Joel Darby.
Joel, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Our event started 5 years ago when we discussed how we could effectively raise money for Bert’s Big Adventure while doing something fun in the process. I had always wanted to organize a night time bike ride in Atlanta, but never had the proper format to generate the needed excitement and still be able to afford the logistics of such a complicated event. My wife, Molly Darby, was at the time, the program director for BBA and together we put together the first ride on a shoe string budget. We had high hopes of having 200-300 riders participate in our inaugural ride. With a lot of help from The Bert Show (Q100), we ended up having over 700 riders register for our first ride! We had anticipated losing a little money or hopefully breaking even in year one, but actually was able to donate $10,000 to Bert’s Big Adventure on our very first ride. From there, we continued to build on that success and added a few new surprises in year two. We didn’t break the mold much hoping that word of mouth on how much fun our event was would increase attendance. Our second year ride was an overwhelming success with over 2000 riders! Since then, we’ve continued to pour countless hours into perfecting the ride and all of the elements that surround it. We’ve added a pre-party festival with live music, food trucks and entertainment for the few hours that lead up to the event. A few things have remained constant. First and foremost, our t-shirt. We pride ourselves in providing the best quality and softest t-shirt we can find (within reason of course!), with the best design. Nothing makes us more proud as an organization than seeing that shirt on the Beltline, at music festivals and all across Atlanta. Second, we’ve directed a massive amount of energy towards providing a safe environment for our riders. In 2017, we plan on hiring over 100 off duty Atlanta Police Officers to ensure the safest ride yet. We’ve also made sure that Bert’s Big Adventure and our ability to donate to their great cause is at the forefront of our mission. To date, we’ve been able to donate over $200,000 for the organization with a lofty goal of reaching $1M within 10 years! With our continued success, support of our patrons and generous donations from our amazing sponsors, we look forward to reaching that goal sooner than later!
Has it been a smooth road?
Our biggest challenge is that our event is 100% volunteer operated. We don’t have a single person on payroll, which means that a lot of what we do is during off hours and when time allows. It’s a community effort and we’re fortunate to have very smart people that help us get the event accomplished. For the day of the ride, we have over 150 volunteers donate their time to help us pull off the ride.
Our other biggest challenge is has been making sure that we’re providing the safest ride and route available. We work very closely with City of Atlanta to make sure our route is both safe and minimally invasive to Atlanta commuters. We’ve adjusted our route and our start times every year to help improve safety and traffic. Each year, we add more and more safety features and take all of the feedback we receive and apply it to the next years ride.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are 100% volunteer run and have a team of around 6 of us that handle various tasks throughout the year. We lean heavily of Bert’s Big Adventure as we get closer to our event to help us with logistics. Our event is only once a year, but takes a good portion of the year to organize!
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
The City of Atlanta is the perfect venue for our event. We feel that our timing was fairly impeccable with the development of the Beltline coinciding with the formation of our event. Atlanta has seen an enormous cycling movement over the past 5 years and we feel like events like ours are helping to continue that momentum. We also feel our ride is a break from traditional biking events and encourages new cyclists each year. We hear a lot of feedback from participants that are buying their first bike just to ride in the Moon Ride.
Pricing:
- Registration – $35 – includes admission to festival style pre-party, 2017 Moon Ride T-shirt and admission to the ride!
- VIP – $95 – includes 2017 Moon Ride T-shirt, admission to the ride, private tented area with private air conditioned bathrooms, private bar, complimentary catering, VIP bike valet, private check in, and 5 complimentary drink tickets
Contact Info:
- Website: www.atlantamoonride.com
- Email: info@atlantamoonride.com
- Instagram: /atlantamoonride
- Facebook: /atlantamoonride
- Twitter: /atlantamoonride
Image Credit:
Image credit Adam Davila
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