Beer Run Brings Bikes to Kids in Need

Ferguson-Murphy event celebrates 45 years of giving

Bart Ferguson remembers the first bike he got for Christmas. It was a blue Schwinn Stingray. His parents, Denny and Rorie, parked it under the tree, and that initial glimpse of it as he came down the stairs still fills him with the joy of a whole new world opening up like a present.

“I was probably 8 or 10 years old, somewhere in there. I wanted to open the rest of my presents, but what I wanted to do immediately was get on that bike and just go ride. That’s what we all did,” Bart recalls. “That freedom you feel, it allows you to grow into an independent person.”

Five years ago, Bart and his cousin, Ted Ferguson, pumped new air into the tires of the Ferguson-Murphy Beer Run, an event that starts at 6:15 a.m. every Christmas Eve day in MAC’s Turnaround. Forty years earlier, Denny came up with the idea after being struck by a simple, ingenious idea.

“What if we stopped and got a beer halfway through our morning run?,” he wondered. The thirst for suds has seldom led to humanitarian endeavors, but that’s exactly how it happened. What began with a band of athletic rebels stopping at a Produce Row bar, grew into an event that’s gifted more than 2,000 bicycles and helmets to Portland kids through local nonprofits Lifeworks NW and the Relief Nursery since 2014.

This is the strange, true story of an annual happening so Portland it could make a hipster blush. Crack open a cold one, relax, and let Bart, Denny and Rorie pedal down memory lane.

Sometimes a Great Notion

“They’ve done a fantastic job. It’s bigger and better than it ever was,” Denny says of the new Ferguson-Murphy Beer Run & Bike Ride. “It was always a shoe-string deal in my day, but at its heart, it’s a really good concept.”

The first Beer Run took place in 1974, and for six or so years, it was always the

Friday before Christmas. Looking at the photo snapped that year, it’s hard not to hear a Ken Burns-esque narrator recounting the early-morning adventures of this short-shorted crew of athletic outlaws posing with beer cans in hand and mischievous smiles on their faces.

Stocking caps, flannels, Adidas stripes and one incredible mustache also mark the fashions. They’re gathered outside Barbi’s Café, a long-gone watering hole for truckers and dock workers in inner southeast. The next year, the names behind all these mugs would adorn the first official Ferguson-Murphy t-shirt.

“I used to buy the shirts, print everybody’s name on them who participated in it, and distribute them for the next year’s run,” Rorie recalls. From the very beginning, any Ferguson old enough to participate was involved in some way. “I’d take the kids, and later the grandkids, and we would all set up the beer and put it out for the runners. One year, in the early ’80s, it got so cold that as I was pouring the beer into the cup, it froze!,” she says.

Every year at 4:15 a.m., the lights went on at the Furguson house, and Christmas music would set the stage for the arrival of friends and family eager to pitch in. Breakfast — and a shot of Jameson for the adults — would warm bellies, and the love and good fortune of the family was such that it simply had to spill over.

“At first, we raised a few hundred dollars, but eventually it got up to $2,000 or $3,000,” Denny explains. “We’d donate it to the Easter Seals or United Way. If everybody was going to go out running and have a beer together, we figured why not raise a little money along the way to help those who weren’t as lucky as we were.”

For the next four decades, the run would pretty much continue in this improvisational fashion, with attendance ebbing and flowing like the Coors Light Denny favored. Some years the cops would show up and eye the celebratory mob, but Bart says they never bothered them. It’s hard to think ill of windbreaker-bedecked joggers singing along to “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” even if it’s only 7 a.m.

Denny has nothing but great memories, especially of that fateful present he bought Bart one year around the first Beer Run. “The best thing I ever got him was a bike. He’s always been such a warm-hearted, giving kid, but I had no idea what that bike would eventually inspire.”

Breaking Away

“It extended Christmas by a long shot,” Bart says of his family’s charitable tradition. “You’d come home after the run and then have a really, really, really long Christmas Eve Day. It was so fun!”

Conditioned by his former Marine dad to get up at 4:15 a.m. anyway, he never resented the early mornings, even when, during his college years, it sometimes meant

staying up all night. “Low and behold, every year, without any promotion, probably between 25 and 50 people would show up. We’d pour them a beer, wish them happy holidays, and send them on their way. Both my parents have been so giving their whole life, whether it’s money or time or having people who needed a home stay with us, they’ve always been that way. That is how we were raised, and that is a big part of why all of us have the passion to help people.”

When Bart says “all of us,” he means it. From Ted, who handles the logistics of buying, building and delivering bikes to another cousin, Pat, whose company, Riverpoint Medical, provides warehouse space for storage and assembly, the whole family gets into the spirit. Ed Murphy’s grandson, Patrick, marks the route, fellow MAC member Eric Larpenteur puts up the inflatables and other flair that set the tone for the start of the race at MAC, and club Early Bird Alison Rosenblum assists with marketing and strategy.

“My sister, Rosanne, and brother, Matt, have been instrumental in keeping the tradition alive! My sister in law, Hadley Ferguson, who is a famous artist, created the logo,” Bart adds. More Fergusons, Heitkempers and other extended relations do everything from accounting to driving the trucks that drop the bikes at six different locations, including KGW, Jesuit High School and Friends of the Children.

Long involved with Lifeworks NW and the Relief Nursery, Bart and Ted decided to ask one year, “What’s the best gift these kids could get, that they’d really appreciate?”

“They told me, ‘It’s a bike,’ and that made so much sense,” Bart recounts. “That allows them to play with the other kids, be free, and not be hindered by lack of access to transportation.”

“Ted and I started out buying two bikes, and then we said, ‘OK, let’s do this. Let’s see if we can turn it into a fundraiser, making sure bikes and helmets get to kids who need them. We’ve tried to increase the numbers of bikes each year, because we want to do that for the kids. Last year we were at about 500, and this year we have around 400 so far.”

A Christmas Eve Story

While not an official MAC event, the club has contributed in a few ways. Besides hosting the start and finish of the race, MAC has allowed Bart and Ted to sell shirts and otherwise raise money on the premises, and also made it very easy for members to donate via their accounts. The club’s doors open extra early each year so the Ferguson- Murphy crew can set up, and in years past, MAC has provided hot beverages and pastries upon the runners’ return.

“You don’t have to give thousands of dollars to change a child’s Christmas,” Bart says. “It’s $75 for a bike and a helmet, and we’ve broken it down so it’s really easy for everyone to grasp and make happen.” Other local partners include Fred Meyer, Penske and Maletis Beverage. Runners now break in front of Le Bistro Montage, which gladly allows the gathering on its stoop. Planning the event has nearly become an all-year odyssey, with Bart overseeing the fundraising starting as early as March.

“We love it so much, and there’s nothing better that we could do to celebrate Christmas Eve, not just the day of, but all year long. To see the look on those kids’ faces when they get their bikes is everything. And it all started with my mom, dad and Ed. They were running at 6 a.m., stopping for a beer, and running back. I mean, who does that?” WM

The Ferguson-Murphy Beer Run & Bike Ride leaves the Turnaround at 6:15 a.m. Monday, Dec. 24, with check-in starting at 6. To sign up for the event or make a donation, go to fergusonmurphy.org. There is a suggested donation of $25 per person to participate.