The charity ride to and from Dillon may have lasted a day, but its effects will last a long time.

For 1996 Sidney High School graduate Lindsay (Saboe) Schack the 130-mile Camp Make-A-Dream bike ride combined her love for cycling and making a difference.

“This is a way for me to, I guess, really indulge in doing an endurance race in cycling but also have the opportunity to have something really positive come out of it,” she said. The annual ride, called RATPOD (short for Ride Around The Pioneers In One Day), took place June 27 and has raised more than $1 million for the camp in Gold Creek since 2002.

Camp Make-A-Dream provides a cost-free experience for children battling cancer where they can escape for a week with their families to hike, fish, swim, ride bikes and do other activities in a medically supervised environment.

“It just basically provides an outlet for their families to play and be kids and stuff even though they’re fighting a serious illness,” Schack said, who rode for the GAS/Intrinsic Architecture Cycling Team out of Bozeman. “So it’s a cool program.”

Though she heard about the ride for the last three years while living in Bozeman, this year was her first time participating. She had been training with avid cyclists in her area during her free time and “got hooked” on the sport when she decided to do the charity ride.

The ride held more than 100 cyclists who participated and was highly supervised by paramedics and had breakfast and lunch stops, water stops and a pie and ice cream stop. In addition, Schack said the large number of cyclists cooperated well together which also made for an enjoyable ride.

Schack asked friends and family to donate to the cause. “When they heard that I was actually going to ride this far, they were really excited for me,” she said, “and I really wanted to help out, so that was fun to be able to do that and have the support of my friends as motivation,” she said. Schack raised nearly $1,200 alone.

However, she credits her husband, Greg, for the ability to complete the event. He was the one who took care of their son when Schack had to train on weekends. Some days she’d leave early in the morning to go on an 80-mile training ride and not come back until the afternoon. His continued support of her endeavor was greatly appreciated.

Schack enjoyed her time so much she’s already thought about doing it again. “I would love to do it again next year, although I think I’m going to have to defer that decision to my husband to see if he’s up for all the training Saturdays,” she said. “I hope to do a lot more cycling in the future too. I think I’ll be doing it for years to come.”