The second annual Ride For Ronnie motorcycle rally and concert to benefit the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund was held May 22 in Encino, California.

The event was attended by approximately 1,000 people including 300 who rode 20 miles from Glendale to Los Encinos Park, where music was performed by Great White, Lita Ford, Dio Disciples, and others. Among the riders were “Sons of Anarchy” cast members Emilio Rivera, Michael Beach, and Sean McNabb, guitarist/songwriter Gilby Clarke (Vintage Guitar, December ’14), and Wendy Dio, widow of the late Ronnie James Dio and co-founder of the Dio Cancer Fund.

The event raised $50,000, partly through a live auction of items including a B.C. Rich guitar signed by Dio, Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), King Diamond, and Geoff Tate, a custom-made leather Kutte motorcycle vest with a set of embroidered Dio Cancer Fund patches, and an ESP guitar signed by the event’s performers. All net proceeds from the event go to the Dio Cancer Fund, which was formed in memory of singer, who lost his life to gastric cancer in 2010. A 501(c)(3) charity dedicated to prevention, research, and education, it has raised more than $1 million and committed funds to T. J. Martell Foundation for Cancer, AIDS and Leukemia Research, the gastric-cancer research unit of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and other projects that support research and education that furthers early detection, prevention, and treatment of prostate, colon and gastric cancers. Learn more at www.diocancerfund.org.