‘Pedaling with purpose.’ Bike ride fundraiser aims to provide armor to first responders

REXBURG — Over two dozen people will be participating in an upcoming four-day bike ride fundraiser across the state of Idaho with proceeds going to help first responders.

The 2024 Idaho Tour de Shield616 Ride, which is put on by a Colorado nonprofit organization named SHIELD616, will take place from Sept. 19 to Sept. 22. A group of civilians and first responders will bike 324.1 total miles in an effort to raise awareness and raise funds to provide rifle rated armor, such as vests, helmets and rifle plates, to Idaho first responders.

“We’re going to be riding from Rexburg to Meridian and we’ll be spending the nights in churches,” Jake Skifstad, founder and president of SHIELD616 told EastIdahoNews.com. “We’ll be pedaling with purpose to raise those funds and help get more vests out there to protect our protectors.”

Skifstad is a former Colorado Springs police officer who was involved in two different active shootings where both shooters were armed with rifles. Those experiences played a role in Skifstad starting SHIELD616.

“A lot of people don’t realize our law enforcement, the vests we typically wear, they don’t protect against rifle threats. It’s not going to do anything against them,” he explained. “We as law enforcement are expected to protect our community for whatever threat comes their way but if it involves a rifle, we have no protection against that.”

It was during the second active shooting Skifstad was involved in that on top of the civilians killed, five officers were shot and one died. Skifstad said with the officer that was killed, the riffle bullet went through the officer’s vest, through his heart and out the other side.

“It became our mission to rally the community around our law enforcement and help fundraise and get these guys and gals that level of protection, which is very expensive,” Skifstad mentioned.

One of the events the organization puts on to help provide rifle rated armor is this bike ride. This is the fourth year the bike ride has taken place in Idaho. Skifstad said the ride is invite-only and capped off at 30 riders.

“It’s special to come ride on this and to ride with those first responders and be an uplifting source of encouragement and motivation,” Skifstad said.

This year, the fundraising goal is to raise a total of $262,400 that will go to the following five agencies: Teton County Sheriff’s Office (15 vests, $36,000), Rexburg Police Department (36 vests, $86,400), Meridian Police Department (15 vests, $36,000), Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office (20 helmets, $8,000) and Ada County Sheriff’s Office (80 sets of rifle plates, $96,000).

The bike ride route will go from Rexburg to Arco then to Fairfield on to Grand View and will end at Scheels, a sporting goods store, in Meridian.

Skifstad finds gratitude in knowing that at the end of the ride, that many more first responders are going to have better protection and “be safer out there.”

“The mental component of knowing that they’re safer, even for their loved ones to know that … their loved one has a higher level of protection to keep them safe to make sure they get to come home, that’s our goal,” Skifstad stated.

Donations stay local. To donate, click here. To become a sponsor, visit the organization’s website or contact Skifstad at Jake@shield616.org. Donors will be invited to a vest presentation where they’ll watch the gear they donated towards be presented.

Also as part of the ride this year, the rider’s jerseys will feature the name and end of watch date of Ada County Sheriff’s Deputy Tobin Bolter who died in-the-line-of-duty earlier this year. An end of watch challenge coin will also be presented to the Ada County Sheriff’s Office at the end of the ride.