Every May, professional and hobbyist cyclists young and old compete in the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic ride from Durango to Silverton.

Some set out to best their personal times on the 47-mile route, which includes 6,600 feet of total ascent. But some riders, such as Durango resident George Glass, have found a way to put their love for cycling toward an altruistic cause.

Glass has ridden in the Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation’s Courage Classic Bicycle Tour in Summit County for the last 10 years to fundraise for the Durango Derailers Patient Assistance Fund, which pays for lodging and gas expenses for patients and families traveling to Children’s Hospital Colorado for care.

For years, 50 to 75 riders with Durango Derailers have participated in the IHBC to boost fundraising efforts. Each year, Durango Derailers raises between $35,000 and $50,000 in the Durango-to-Silverton ride alone.

The patient assistance fund has grown into an impactful force for sick children and their families. Durango Derailers Co-Director Laura Shelton said starting in fall 2022, Durango Derailers expanded its efforts to connect children and families with specialty care at facilities across the country. But it started small.

The patient assistance fund was founded by Kelly Miller in 2007, Shelton said. She had a child who required lifesaving heart surgery, and so she and loved ones started a fundraiser called Team Hannah. They raised money and acquired the surgery that saved her child’s life.

“Kelly, being such the visionary that she is, saw that there was such huge community support around a child in need and getting them access to the right specialty care, that she thought, ‘Well, maybe we need to do this for more community and make it about more kids,” she said.

Thus, Durango Derailers was born.

Miller learned Children’s Hospital allows fundraisers to dictate how their money is distributed – child care, child oncology and gene research are just three examples – as long as at least $50,000 is raised. She found her target, Shelton said.

The Durango Derailers would gather 50 to 120 riders for the Courage Classic each year, complete with team jerseys, and ride for the cause.

Shelton said at first it was challenging to reach the $50,000 mark. But over the years, as the Durango Derailers became more recognizable, that goal shifted to $65,000, and then to $100,000.

The bar keeps rising, she said.

The fund was managed by Children’s Hospital Colorado until a couple of years ago when Durango Derailers reinstituted it in Durango. Historically, it served between two and four families every week. Now, it averages seven families per week. Since 2007, it has raised almost $1.5 million in total.

For the last several years, it raised between $200,000 and $220,000 each year, Shelton said.

Eventually, Durango Derailers took up the IHBC and started another fundraising event, “Dancing With the Durango Stars.”

IHBC organizers donate 50 registration bibs to Durango Derailers, letting fundraising riders dodge registration fees and giving them free rein to ride in any events they please. The riders commit to raising at least $300 and receive their team jerseys, Shelton said. The riders secure corporate sponsorships and work to spread the good word before the ride.

Glass said the wonderful thing about Durango Derailers that became apparent years ago at the Courage Classic is the sense of community he gets from rides. Kids receiving treatment are out having fun.

It’s “families helping families,” he said. Glass has two children, one of whom requires mild specialty treatment, and the Durango Derailers allows Glass to instill admirable values into his kids.

The good-faith efforts to support families in need turned into good karma for Glass, whose own family ended up benefiting from Durango Derailers when his child’s health declined, he said.

Glass and Shelton’s kids have participated in fundraising, which is another bonus of being a part of Durango Derailers. Glass said it teaches the kids responsibility and compassion.

“People for the most part have similar values around community,” Dr. Kicki Searfus, team rider and longtime Durango Derailers supporter, said. “They do it in different ways and they have different mindsets they come at it (with), but for me, my main thrust in fundraising is I just send out an email to my patients. And they have been phenomenally generous.”

Some people have resources and want to donate to a cause they connect with. Durango Derailers often attracts those types, she said.

She said the support Durango Derailers has received over the years “speaks to the universal desire to be part of a community and feel like you’re contributing to something that matters.”

“And boy is it easy for people to get their heads around kids and families who need this kind of help,” she said. “You don’t have to explain anything to them. People get it. It’s not a hard sell. It’s mostly just getting people to where they’re aware of it and having confidence in the resources going to their vision of where the resources are going to be used.”

Shelton said Children’s Hospital has done a great job being transparent, simple and straightforward about how money is used, which makes fundraising easy because people trust the money is being put to use how they intended.

Durango Derailers is also easy to get in touch with for families who need assistance, Shelton said. It just requires families to have an appointment booked for their child or children before they receive funding.

The fundraiser’s website says families interested in tapping into assistance should contact their child’s department (cardiology, pulmonology, genetics, for example) at Children’s Hospital Colorado and speak to that department’s social worker. Parents are asked to then fill out a funding request form with Durango Derailers.

As for the future of Durango Derailers, Shelton said she’d like to create a new branch of the organization focusing on helping kids help other kids.

“These kids are sitting in classrooms with each other. My kiddo has gone to school with kids who are fighting cancer,” she said. “... It’s the whole inclusivity thing, too, right? Like, there’s kids who were just born with life-term diagnosis.”

She said letting kids lift one another up strengthens relationships, builds community and teaches kids how to sustain healthy communities well before they enter adulthood.

cburney@durangoherald.com