(Screenshot from Aflac’s Libby’s Legacy commercial via Facebook)
ORLANDO | After a five-year absence, Libby’s Legacy Breast Cancer Foundation is relaunching Scooters 4 Hooters with a reunion fundraiser at Ace Café Orlando Oct. 22.
“We did it for 10 years, then took a break,” says Robin Maynard-Harris, founder and director of Libby’s Legacy. “We wanted to venture out into some other things. Sometimes Scooters 4 Hooters was hard to get sponsors for because of the edgy name, so we tried some other campaigns but everyone wanted Scooters 4 Hooters back.”
Maynard-Harris launched Libby’s Legacy in 2007, named in honor of her mother, Libby Maynard, who passed away due to breast cancer. She launched Scooters 4 Hooters as a fundraiser event the same year. The funds are used to provide free mammograms and breast health services to underserved communities, as well as fund other Libby’s Legacy programs. In total, the event has raised $938,000 since it began.
“We are very close to that $1 million mark and we hope to get over that amount with this year’s event,” Maynard-Harris says.
This year’s event, being a reunion, will be a little different than prior ones. Instead of a police-escorted ride through the city, it will kick off at Ace Café starting at 11 a.m. with a self-guided nostalgia ride.
“We are going by all the other places where we have held this event before,” Maynard-Harris says. “We will go to 903 Mills Market, where we left for the first time, then Orlando Brewing Company, even though it’s not there anymore, then Lake Eola and Wallstreet Plaza and then end up at Ace Cafe for the party.”
The after-ride celebration will feature survivor tributes, a silent auction and live music from Kelly Neff and Randall Crawford.
“Kelly Neff is coming up from Fort Myers, she had her whole place wiped out and damaged [from Hurricane Ian] but her and her band are still coming,” Maynard-Harris says. “They didn’t cancel and they are even donating their time, they are incredible.”
Libby’s Legacy was also recently awarded a $100,000 grant from Aflac’s Care Grant initiative. The company has partnered with NFL legend Deion Sanders to give $1 million in grants total to 10 nonprofits in the U.S. by the end of 2022.
“They sent an email to the office and our staff answered it but they weren’t sure about it,” Maynard-Harris says. “Then they told me Aflac wants to give us $100,000.”
Maynard-Harris was skeptical at first, saying “grants are competitive, you have to apply and there’s just a lot of steps. Someone doesn’t just call you and want to give you $100,000.”
But they did. Aflac’s president even flew into Orlando to help film a commercial with Libby’s Legacy that premiered on ESPN Oct. 7.
“I asked them while they were here: Why us?” Maynard-Harris says. “They said ‘Libby’s Legacy aligns with our mission: you are a local organization giving more than 90 cents of every dollar to the programs you support. Your transparency and boots on the ground efforts are exactly what we want to give to for the underinsured and underserved.’”
Aflac was impressed that Libby’s Legacy had an LGBTQ program as well, Maynard-Harris adds.
“They are very big on diversity and inclusion,” she says. “And we have to be because anyone can get breast cancer, even men.”
She points out that the new Libby’s Legacy logo, which celebrates the nonprofit’s 15 years, includes a blue stripe.
“Men get breast cancer too,” she says. “The problem is a lot of times it’s too late because men ignore it.”
To fundraise, donate or be a part of Scooters 4 Hooters’ reunion ride, visit Scooters4Hooters.com. Learn more about Libby’s Legacy at LibbysLegacy.org.
