The 617 Journeymen Motorcycle Club of San Mateo, Calif., Local 617 collected more than $53,000 in donations in support of last September’s Northern California Ride for Kids, and club president Dan Pasini credits that figure to the generosity of IBEW members and signatory contractors across the Ninth District.

“This was way above and beyond what I ever imagined we would come up with,” said Pasini, a retired Local 617 member who helped found the club in 2008.

The ride is an annual fundraiser for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, and Business Manager Scott Wein said that a large part of the club’s fundraising success for the event can be ascribed to the club’s “Buck a Member” initiative. Every summer since 2012, the Ninth District’s 33 inside wireman locals — plus Vacaville, Calif., Local 1245, the 28,000-member utility local — have received a letter from the club asking each IBEW brother and sister to consider donating at least one dollar in support of the ride.

“Thanks to their ongoing years of sponsorship, our 617JMC has raised nearly a quarter-million dollars for the PBTF,” Wein said.

In 1984, after learning that a neighbor’s child had a brain tumor, motorcycle enthusiasts Mike and Dianne Traynor were inspired to sponsor rides to raise funds in support of research into the causes of pediatric tumors. Seven years later, the overwhelming success of dozens of rides across the U.S. led them to launch the PBTF.

“It’s amazing that these two regular people got this whole nationwide network started,” said Pasini, who has been riding motorcycles since the late 1970s.

He learned about the foundation in 1996, two years before his initiation into the IBEW. “I wandered into a motorcycle dealership in Daly City,” he said, “and there was a flyer for one of their rides in Vallejo sitting there.”

Pasini, who holds a master’s degree in counseling, had spent 16 years teaching, coaching and mentoring high school students. He later served as program director of the Pacific Youth Service Bureau.

With his eldest daughter permanently deafened by pneumococcal meningitis, he sought a steadier and better-paying job that would allow him to spend more time caring for her.

“At the high school, there were parents who worked in non-union construction, and a lot of them did major electrical work,” he said. “I worked over some breaks with them, and that started getting me interested in it.”

After topping out of Local 617’s apprenticeship in 2002, Pasini quickly became a union activist and apprenticeship director, eventually serving as the local’s vice president and then 15 years as president, until his retirement in 2022.

Involvement in Ride for Kids had waned somewhat during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pasini said. “But the last few years have been amazing,” he said, noting that more than 100 riders — IBEW members and others — took part in the 2025 ride. “It’s been like a rebirth of what it used to be.”

That rebirth was also evident in the success of the “Buck a Member” campaign, which had generated an impressive $27,000 in donations by the Wednesday before the Sept. 21 ride. Pasini recalled speaking about that with club treasurer and quartermaster Dave Goodwin.

“I said, ‘Dave, what can we do to up this?’” Pasini said. “I thought a nice round number like 30 grand would be great.”

Goodwin suggested calling Catherine Lynch, owner of Local 617 signatory contractor Lynch Electric.

“When she heard about it, it energized her,” said Goodwin, who has personally known members of the Lynch family for many years. “I knew she was a good person, and I just knew that would happen.”

Lynch then got in touch with the leaders of the National Electrical Contractors Association’s San Mateo chapter, as well as her contacts at fellow California-based signatories Morrow-​Meadows and ASF Electric.

“Within a day and a half, Catherine got us $6,000,” Pasini said, half from the NECA chapter and half from her company and the others.

On the day of the event, riders looped for about 90 minutes around Fremont’s hills along the east side of San Francisco Bay, beginning and ending on the campus of Ohlone College and escorted by seven California Highway Patrol volunteers.

“The weather was beautiful, perfect,” Pasini said. “It was a little fogged over at the beginning, but it ended up being nice and sunny.”

As he has in recent years, Pasini also served on the ride’s task force. “That’s the team that helps put it together,” he said. “They line up volunteers to cover all the components of the daily events, from finding a place, getting food, and getting the CHP on board.”

Three young PBTF beneficiaries also took part in the event, Pasini said, and they joined riders and volunteers at a post-ride lunch as well as a celebration of life.

“That’s always a very moving event,” he said. “Sometimes it involves family, and sometimes we’ll get medical personnel from UCSF, Stanford and others who are working with the kids locally to speak about what they’re doing.”

The club ended up bringing in $53,152 in donations, Pasini said, thanks also to a boost from Local 617’s executive board, which authorized a $5,000 donation. Thousands more came from an Apple employee who traditionally has his contributions credited to one of the ride’s fundraising groups.

“But it really had everything to do with the Ninth District’s response and the NECA San Mateo chapter getting on board,” said Pasini of the final tally.

The club president added that the Northern California ride’s grand total of $71,100 was more than $6,000 above its goal, making it one of only two of the foundation’s nine fundraisers in the U.S. last year that met or exceeded their fundraising targets.

“Our program has changed a lot in 42 years, and the fact that Dan’s passion runs so deeply in what we do, that’s been such a joy,” said Alissa Karas, the PBTF’s director of peer-to-peer fundraising. “He has really taken his experience and uses that as an opportunity to tell everyone about the incredible work that this organization does. He’s a real champion and ambassador of our work.”

The Ride for Kids is just one of the club’s activities. “We’ve been out in the community for years,” Pasini said, with club members taking part in such things as San Francisco Local 6’s annual Toy Run, riding in parades and serving as flag line holders for honor flights, and working as safety escorts for bicyclists on ALS fundraising rides.

“At union meetings, when Dan gives a report, he always asks me, ‘Is there anything else you can add?’” Goodwin said. “I always stand up and say, ‘Just come out and ride. It’s fun and everyone is welcome.’”

Wein noted that the club also leads the George Bastidas Memorial Run. Named for a young Local 617 journeyman wireman who died in a car crash in 2009, the ride raises money for IBEW members in need.

“I’ve always felt that if you’re in a good enough place where you could help, you help,” Goodwin added. “You never know when you might need to be a recipient of that help.”

Pasini, who is already thinking about the PBTF’s next planned Bay Area ride this fall, notes that there are more than 160,000 IBEW members in the Ninth District, which covers seven western states along with the U.S.’s Pacific island territories.

“If, God willing, every single local member gave, it could mean a six-digit donation,” he said.

Wein said Local 617 is grateful to see what the club has built from its members’ passion for motorcycle riding.

“Our local is extremely proud of our Journeymen Motorcycle Club and its advocacy, dedication and community service,” Wein said. “Keep riding strong and know we are most grateful for all you do.”

Ninth District International Vice President David Reaves said Pasini, the motorcycle club and Local 617 exemplify the best of the IBEW.

“With support from local unions across the Ninth District and our signatory partners,” Reaves said, “their work shows how solidarity and generosity can make a real difference for children and families in need.”

Learn more about the PBTF and Ride for Kids at curethekids.org.