Graham Wardle may work with trusty steeds on the set of CBC’s Heartland, but for his second straight summer, the New Westminster actor is trading them in for a steel horse.
Wardle, who plays Ty Borden on the prairie drama, is doing the Cruise with a Cause, six-day motorcycle ride through B.C. to raise money for charity. Proceeds from this year’s ride go to Sophie’s Place, a Surrey-based foundation that consoles physically, mentally and sexually abused children.
“It’s an issue that we think need attention and light, and we want to talk about it in a positive way,” said the 27-year-old actor, who co-founded the ride with friend Don McLeod last year. “We thought this would be a great way to sort of stand up and say, ‘Abuse does happen and you can move forward with your life and really make the best of it.’”
While the money raised from last year’s ride went to prostate cancer research, Wardle said they picked Sophie’s Place as this year’s charity after he participated in some events with the organization.
“It’s really a valuable resource that we desperately need. There’s only one resource centre of its kind in Eastern Canada, which also deals with physical, sexual and mental abuse.”
The idea for 2013’s inaugural ride sparked when a Heartland director invited Wardle on a motorcycle ride to California. He started telling his friends and one of them suggested making a fundraiser out of it.
“Somebody said, ‘Well, what’s it for?’” he recalled. “’Are you doing it for fun or are you doing it for charity?’
“I was like, ‘Well, it was for fun, but now we’re doing it for charity.’”
Now Wardle and a number of his co-stars will be taking to B.C.’s highways for the ride, which runs through Whistler, Kamloops and Vernon, then winds through the Okanagan Valley before returning to the Lower Mainland. The cast are doing meet and greets at numerous stops along the way, selling photos, T-shirts and Wardle’s book, Find Your Truth, to raise funds.
“Amber (Marshall), who plays Amy, just bought a Harley Davidson motorcycle after our ride,” said Wardle. “She drove behind us the whole way (last year), and she was like, ‘I’m not doing that again, I want to ride.’
“Alisha (Newton), who plays Georgie, she’s riding with her uncle because she’s too young to ride – she’s on the back of her uncle’s bike.”
Wardle called last year’s ride a “liberating experience” and recalled one standout event that occurred after the crew took a rollercoaster-like back road.
“It was a really sentimental moment because two of the riders, their father passed away just before we did the ride,” he said. “They were reflecting on their father’s passing and we kind of sat there and were very grateful that the life that we had and the fun that we’d just had on that back road.”
The ride ends at Surrey’s Central City Shopping Centre on Saturday, Aug. 30 from 5 to 8 p.m. Wardle, Marshall and Newton will do a meet and greet with five other Heartland cast members: Shaun Johnston, Cindy Busby, Nathaniel Arcand, Gabe Hogan and Kerry James.
“Everybody’s pretty stoked and excited,” said Wardle. “It’s a beautiful ride and it’s really fun to meet fans of the show and people who come out for support.”
For more information, check cruisewithacause.ca.
