The Woman Riders World Relay, or WRWR, is an organization created by Hayley Bell from the UK. WRWR organizes and participates in a women’s motor bike relay around the world. The relay covers remote, daring, and vast parts of the world. The organization has more than 10,000 group members from over 80 countries.

According to the website, Founder Hayley Bell wanted to “ignite a global sisterhood of inspirational women to promote courage, adventure, unity and passion for biking from all corners of the world and do something that’s never been done before to this scale. My aim is to wow the industry into realizing the global market for women in Motorsports and to inspire women world wide. Going into motorcycle stores and seeing a lack of choice, combined with stereotypical pink and being told “there just isn’t the market for women”, highlighted to me just one small element of a much bigger picture around women in Motorsports. I want to show the industry the force behind the market that is so blindly overlooked. I am doing this because women bikers can make this happen” (https://womenridersworldrelay.com/about/).

Glenda Owens, the Allied Health Coordinator at GCCC, recently took part in the relay. Owens was one of the guardians in the relay that relayed the baton from guardian to guardian as the relay continued.

“The baton was hand carved in Scotland where the founder is from.” Owens said. “Inside the baton is a scroll where every “Guardian” who carries the baton writes a message to all the other Guardians in the other countries. The baton is carried in a have metal case with straps like a back pack. At the end of the global ride the baton will be placed in a museum in Scotland. ”

Owens completed the leg from from Albuquerque, NM to Fort Stockton, TX. which began on Oct. 11 2019. Owens was also able to join a U.S. Ripple ride.

“There was only one global ride but each individual country could also do a “Ripple Ride” with a much smaller baton passed around that particular country.” Owens said. ” The U.S. did a Ripple Ride and at the completion of the US Ripple Ride that baton will go to the AMA (American Motorcycle Association) Museum.  I was lucky to meet up with riders in Wichita, KS for the US Ripple Ride as well.”

Since Feb. of 2019 the relay has taken place in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England, France, Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia,  New Zealand, Japan, Canada, USA, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.

From Nov. to Feb. 2020 the relay is scheduled to take place in Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Oman, UAE, and finally finish in at the UK WRWR Exhibition Event.

For more information about WRWR visit their webpage: https://womenridersworldrelay.com