What do darts, bananas, bicycles and pink flamingos all have in common?
Luverne’s Theresa Latten is at the center of them all, coordinating next week’s Bars and Banana Seats bike ride, which benefits Bottoms Up Pink Ladies.
Bars and Banana Seats is a local bike ride organized just for fun. This year it starts at 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, at the Howling Dog in Luverne.
“My friend and I were riding our bikes around town one night and ended up at the Howling Dog,” Latten told the Star Herald prior to the first Bars and Banana Seats ride two years ago.
“We were saying how fun it would be to organize a ride that included all the local bars.”
So they picked a date, set up a Facebook page, ordered T-shirts and put up posters around town. From there the event gained momentum.
That first ride attracted 25 bicyclists who pedaled from bar to bar in Luverne and played silly games involving bananas.
Last year’s ride, which also included silly games involving bananas, drew almost 40 people. So far for this year’s ride, Latten said she’s expecting at least that many.
Amanda and Dave McDonald will be among them. They also rode in 2013 and 2014.
“It was something different and new in town,” Amanda said about that first ride. “It was a lot of fun. It was fun to meet people and have a good time.”
She said they didn’t hesitate to sign up for the second ride in 2014.
“Dave and I had enough fun the year before, so we came back,” she said.
McDonald credits Latten’s effective use of social media to drive interest in the event and for creative originality.
“I don’t know of an event like that even in Sioux Falls,” McDonald said.
“It's a good way to get out on your bike and a fun way to experience Luverne.”
The first year was free, and last year (and this year, too) Latten requested a $5 registration fee per bicycle to help out local families affected by cancer.
That’s where the Bottoms Up Pink Ladies come in.
Bottoms Up Pink Ladies
It’s a dart league through the Bottoms Up bar in Corson, South Dakota, that raises money for people and families affected by cancer.
Latten and several other Banana Seat bicyclers are Pink Ladies members, so Latten decided to use the social bike ride as another creative fundraiser for the Pink Ladies, a group known for creative fundraisers.
For example, the Pink Ladies signature moneymaker is the “flocking” of area businesses, individuals and organizations with a yard full of pink flamingos.
Anyone can pay to have someone “flocked,” at a cost of $25 for 25 birds or $50 for 50.
Other creative fundraisers include “Boobzie Koozies” sales and working in the VIP booth at Huset’s Speedway in Brandon.
Dart league registrations bring in regular revenue, and the group regularly disperses $500 donations to anyone with a cancer diagnosis.
“If you know anybody with cancer we’ll hook them up,” Latten said. “We raise it and get rid of it. It all stays local.”
She admits she never threw a dart before joining the league.
“There are times I can’t hit the board, but that’s not what it’s about. … It’s a non-competitive league.”
She said the group has presented more than 50 donations in the past two years totaling $27,500.
Most recipients use the money to pay for gas traveling to and from treatments, or for meals out or simple luxuries cancer gets in the way of.
In recent months the group has dispersed larger amounts over $1,000 resulting from special fundraisers.
For example, they recently raffled off a 2015 Harley Davidson motorcycle that cost $20,698. The group brought in $50,000 in ticket sales, so there’s more than $29,000 in the bank about to be donated.
For the Aug. 8 Bars and Banana Seats event in Luverne, Latten has again organized a silent auction to benefit the Pink Ladies.
Already there are donations from dozens of businesses, organizations and individuals in the tri-state area, all of whom Latten calls on personally.
She agreed the process is time-consuming, but she said she doesn’t think twice about her personal investment in a cause that helps so many people.
“It’s so fulfilling. It really is,” she said. “If it’s something you believe in and makes you feel good, you’re going to do it.”
Latten’s parents both died of cancer (Clark Latten had liver cancer and Patricia Latten had heart and lung cancer), and her grandmother, Margaret Mitchell, died of breast cancer.
“It touches everybody,” Latten said about cancer. “If we can help somebody, that makes me feel good.”
About the Aug. 8 event
The silent auction will be set up at the Howling Dog Saloon in Luverne from 4 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8.
The ride will start and end at the Howling Dog, and the silent auction will remain open for bidding while riders are gone.
Times for the event are as follows:
•Registration from 4:30 to 6 p.m. ($5 per bike)
•Kickstands up at 6 p.m.
•Silent auction open from 4 to 10 p.m.
To donate to the cause, contact Latten through the Bars and Banana Seats Facebook page.
For more about the Pink Ladies, visit the Bottoms Up Pink Ladies Facebook page.
Financial donations to the Corson Pink Ladies may be mailed to:
Bottoms Up
25989 482nd Ave.
Brandon, SD 57005