Gold Wing midnight riders Bob and Sandy Follett of Hesperia (left) and Roger and Pam Young of Mears chat on their motorcycles during the post-ride cookout at Kewadin Casino.

When Stacey Chase showed up at Fifth Third Ballpark in Comstock Park Friday night, August 19, for the 19th Annual Midnight Ride, she wasn’t prepared for her eight-hour motorcycle journey to St. Ignace.

“I wasn’t dressed for it at all,” the executive director of the Western Michigan Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation admitted the next day. “But someone gave me a pair of boots, someone else gave me a jacket, and soon I was ready to go.”

So she hopped on Dave Doyle’s bike for her first ride, joining a group of Gold Wing Road Riders that would swell to more than 1,000 by the time they crossed the Mackinac Bridge, 240 miles later, to raise money for her foundation. “It was amazing, and a lot of fun,” she said.

Michigan Chapter G of the association, from Grand Rapids, has headed the ride for 19 years, when some of its members came up with a nighttime alternative to hot daytime rides in August. It hooked up with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation a few years later and has since raised more than $300,000 for it, including about $26,000 last year. Ms. Chase was expecting 2005 to be similar.

Though rain showers moved through Michigan throughout the weekend, the ride was dry until the group got within 10 miles of Mackinaw City, said Mr. Doyle, who writes for the chapter’s newsletter. Rain canceled some of the planned games and entertainment, but the riders enjoyed a barbecue and bike display outside Kewadin Shores Casino. Many of them rode in the “parade of lights,” which began at the casino and looped up and down State Street.

Bob and Sandy Follett of Hesperia, like some others, came to St. Ignace the day before. As the cookout was getting rolling, they were preparing to make a side trip to Sault Ste. Marie. The couple simply loves to ride and, earlier this summer, made a 2,200-mile round-trip ride to Sturgis, South Dakota.

They are also up for a good cause.

“If you think [this ride] ain’t good, go to the meeting where they bring in this little girl and listen to how she has to get up every hour of the night to get a shot, to get her blood checked,” said Mr. Follett, who said he has participated in every Midnight Ride. “Her finger was so sore, they had to take it out of her legs. If you don’t cry a little at that, you’re a hard person.”

Mr. Follett was referring to one of a number of meetings that are held for the riders and others who contribute to the foundation, said Ms. Chase. Usually a child with diabetes is present to share with the audience what a day in the life of someone with the disease is like.

“A lot of the riders have someone who suffers from diabetes in their family,” she said.

Most of the bikers left from the park at midnight and made meticulously scheduled stops through the night in Alma, Houghton Lake, and Gaylord for coffee, refreshments, and donations. Others from different association chapters jumped in along the way. Some left Comstock Park just a bit early so they could stop at an overpass along the way and look behind them at the wave of bikes. Some come from out of state to participate.

After everyone crossed the Mackinac Bridge, breakfast was served at the casino around 8 a.m. Despite the late rain, Mr. Doyle said it was more than 20 degrees warmer than last year, when temperatures dipped below 40 degrees in some spots.

This year, “it was in the low 60s with a full moon,” he said.