Everything else about this festival, the balloons, the skydivers, the fifty-plus costume prizes, is the party. NorCal Trykers is the reason for it. They are our nonprofit beneficiary every year, and sponsors are what keep the festival free for everyone who turns up. Seven Halloweens in, that has added up to more than $50,000 and 42 custom tricycles.
A physical therapist, a Lodge, and a very good idea
NorCal Trykers is the first Northern California chapter of National AMBUCS, founded in 2017 by Gill Williams, a physical therapist who began her career in London, came to the United States in 2002, and retired from Shriners Hospitals for Children in Sacramento. The chapter builds custom Amtryke therapeutic tricycles for children with disabilities across the greater Sacramento area and gives them away free. Across all of its work, for every funder and every event, NorCal Trykers has put close to 400 children on a trike since 2017.
Williams told Comstock's magazine in 2018 about the moment that started it, a 10-year-old with cerebral palsy who had spent her life on braces and crutches: "In a matter of minutes, I was running at her side and she was laughing and giggling." Her conviction, the one that built a whole chapter: "Any child can become successful, regardless of their disability." A custom tryke now costs about $1,200 to build.
Davis came into it through the Odd Fellows Lodge. Williams brought the Amtryke program to them just as they were chasing a Guinness record for the largest zombie bike parade in the world. The Lodge put the two ideas together. Guinness turned the record down, and by then it hardly mattered. "By the time they said 'no,'" says Aaron Wedra, "we had so much community support that we never lost enthusiasm for a second." The fuller story is in how the parade began.
What the festival has raised
Seven years of Halloween, year by year:
- 2019: 2 trikes
- 2020: 6 trikes
- 2021: $6,300, 7 trikes
- 2022: $7,600, 8 trikes
- 2023: roughly $9,000, 9 trikes
- 2024: $8,000, 8 trikes
- 2025: $9,451, the biggest single year yet
That is 42 adaptive tricycles, a figure NorCal Trykers' president confirmed in August 2026, and more than $50,000 raised since 2019. More numbers on the history page.
"It gives these children freedom. They can be mobile for the first time ever." (Dave Rosenberg, 2019)
Where the money comes from, and where it goes
The festival is funded mainly by sponsors, which is how the main event stays free. Over the years the rest has come from glow-in-the-dark T-shirt sales, a 2022 comedy fundraiser, Second Sunday Bingo at the Lodge (about 115 players in October 2025), and donation points along the route. NorCal Trykers is the beneficiary every year, and in good years there is enough left to share: The Bike Campaign got $500 in 2022, the Odd Fellows Hall Board $603 in bar proceeds, Davis Cub Scouts $474 from a pizza booth, and in 2024 the festival split further gifts among Thriving Pink ($600), Friends of Watermelon Music ($500) and Toys for Tots ($100).
Freedom, and the wind in their hair
Jim Provenza, the former Yolo County Supervisor, has said the trikes "give children with special needs the same freedom and mobility as other children. They provide an opportunity to thrive for the cost of a tryke." The families who receive them ride in the parade behind a NorCal Trykers banner every year, a tradition that started with the very first ride in 2019.
The people behind it: NorCal Trykers' board is Terryl and Jim Kocsis, Ginger Joyce MD, Anthony Philipps MD, Darin and Jean Salk, Barbara Medrano and Joanne Crosta. Terryl also sat on the festival's founding committee. Gill Williams founded the chapter, and Tapua Gwarada and Lisette Walker run the NorCal Trykers team on event day.
If a story like this is the reason you would sponsor something, become a sponsor and know exactly where the money lands. If you would rather be there on the day, volunteer at one of our 25+ entertainment stations.
