While the Love Ride has the celebrity status of Jay Leno's name attached to it, for nearly 20 years the Toys in the Sun Run has had its own celebrity as well, Bob Amchir. Each year, as president of SFPC and chief director of the Toy Run, Bob, along with his son David, has had the arduous but heart-fulfilling task of organizing the run, making sure everything goes off without a hitch, and leading parades of more than 30,000 bikers from the Pompano Harness Track to Markham Park in Sunrise, FL. And, as expected, just as in previous years, this year's event was a great success, but it was with heavy hearts that organizers and attendees gathered, since Bob had passed away several days before the event on December 6, 2006.
Bob was one of those guys who knew everybody, and everybody knew Bob. There wasn't a person I talked to who didn't know Bob or have a story to tell about him. From what I gathered, Bob was one of the biggest advocates for helping/supporting the community, especially children, in any way possible. Bob was an icon in the Southern Florida area, as evidenced by the fact that, toward the end of the day when songwriter/musician Richie Supa tickled the ivories center stage and sang the hit song "Amazing," there wasn't a dry eye in the audience. Bob would have been very proud to watch his son and successor as chief director of the Toy Run, David, make the check presentation for $576,000.
As stated earlier, the Toy Run was also the final party stop for the HRRHT. Throughout the year, the HRRHT has showcased builders Aaron Greene of Paramunt Custom Cycles, Gard Hollinger of LA Choprods, Paul Cox and Keino of Indian Larry Legacy, and Eric Gorges of Voodoo Choppers, and has been tearing up every stop. From Daytona to Austin, Laconia back to Daytona and ending in Sunrise, FL, the HRRHT has been the place to be to check out sweet bikes, watch the Purrfect Angelz, hang out with the featured builders, listen to music, dance, watch live performances, and, most importantly, win prizes. At each stop, rally participants had the opportunity to sign up for a chance to be selected as the grand-prize winner at the final stop, where one lucky person would get to pick which bike he or she wanted to take home.