BAUMHOLDER, Germany — Dreaming of riding Europe’s winding back roads, your Harley rumbling steadily through the curves?
At the worst, you have a 1-in-10,000 chance of living the fantasy.
Army and Air Force Exchange Service and Air Force groups at Ramstein Air Base are giving away a new Harley-Davidson on Sept. 19, at the Vogelweh AAFES New Cars Sales as a charity fund-raiser.
Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson Motor Co. is donating a motorcycle to AAFES’ New Car Sales, said Steve Kyle, service business manager.
In turn, three Air Force organizations — Chiefs’ Group, First Sergeants Council and the Company Grade Officers’ Council — are helping sell 10,000 chances for $1 each, Kyle said. Proceeds will go to three Air Force charities: Ramstein Area Chiefs’ Group Scholarship Program, Holiday Cheer and Friends of Family Support.
Last March, for a motorcyle giveaway in April, ticket sales — which raised $8,000 after printing costs — were conducted only at Ramstein and Kaiserslautern Military Community/Vogelweh.
This fall’s event will expand to Baumholder, Kyle said. It will be the first time AAFES has had two such raffles in one year; the one earlier this year was the ninth annual Harley giveaway, he said.
“We added another this year. New Car Sales kind of twisted Harley’s arm to give a second bike because we have so many troops returning” from deployments in Iraq, Kyle said. Troops assigned to the 2nd Brigade and Division Artillery of the 1st Armored Division returned in June to Baumholder from a 15-month Iraq deployment.
Tickets go on sale at the Baumholder post exchange this weekend. Kyle predicted chances will sell out before the September drawing. “We’ve still got a couple of good weekends,” he said.
Those weekends include the Officers Wives Club Bazaar at Ramstein the weekend of the drawing. The bazaar typically draws thousands of people from across the U.S. military community.
The April Harley giveaway, supported by the Army Sergeants Major Association, raised money for Special Olympics and the Fisher House Foundation.
