FOR THE TOMAHAWK LEADER
TOMAHAWK – The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) has cancelled its Tomahawk Fall Ride events at SARA Park, MDA Executive Director Murphy Maes said on Tuesday, June 2. Tomahawk Main Street Inc. is still planning festivities to take place downtown during the four-day event.
“At this time, MDA leadership and I have made the extremely difficult decision to cancel Tomahawk Fall Ride at SARA Park to Benefit MDA for 2020,” Murphy stated in an email. “With the uncertainty of what is to come with COVID-19 we simply cannot risk the responsibility of any illnesses for our guests, customers and MDA clients. In order for MDA to keep the promises we have made to move our mission forward for 2020, we are not carrying any event insurance at this time and we do not know when we will be bringing that back.”
Maes said MDA “must implement some drastic measures to ensure we can continue to fund care center and research grants, patient programs and services at the highest possible level” due to the “economic impact of COVID-19.”
“The current pandemic has impacted MDA significantly, and as a result, we find that we must make some difficult decisions to ensure MDA is able to continue our mission for our families,” she said.
Although cancelling the Fall Ride at SARA Park was “not an easy decision to come to,” Maes said MDA “feel(s) that we cannot execute this historic event to the standards we would like.”
Tomahawk Main Street Inc. is still planning events downtown despite MDA’s cancellation of its SARA Park festivities.
The City of Tomahawk Common Council approved Main Street’s Thunder Parade permit on Tuesday, June 2. Main Street’s permit for downtown Fall Ride festivities was approved by the Council in March.