24 Hours of Booty founder on the charity ride's 24th year

Charlotte's famous charity bike-a-thon, the 24 Hours of Booty, kicks off at 7 p.m. Friday on the "Booty Loop" in Charlotte's Myers Park neighborhood.

Hundreds of cyclists and walkers will take turns circling the 3-mile loop for a full 24 hours, raising money for cancer support services.

Since it started in 2002, the event has raised more than $30 million, and this marks the 24th year — call it 24 years of Booty.

The event's founder, Spencer Lueders, joined WFAE's Nick de la Canal from Queens University, where riders were getting ready for the big ride.

Nick de la Canal: Spencer, how are you, and what's it like out there right now?

Spencer Lueders: Hi Nick, I'm doing great. I'm out here at the expo and camping area at 24 Hours of Booty, and people will be arriving soon and getting set up, and we're really looking forward to a special event this year.

De la Canal: Yeah, I wonder if you can take us back to the first ride in 2002. You were planning to do this solo. What were you thinking that night, and when did you realize this could be something bigger?

Lueders: Yeah, it was just an idea I had riding my bike on the Booty Loop one day and thought, gosh, I don't think anybody's ridden this for 24 hours, and I don't even know if I can do that, but it's never been done. I'd love to make an impact in the cancer community, and so I just gave it a shot.

And so the first ride was me basically riding solo. I had some friends, on and off, ride a couple laps with me, and looking back, I think actually I was kind of thinking about it all wrong. When I started the event, I was thinking about the 'what's,' you know? I'm like, What gear am I in? How much am I drinking? Am I eating enough? Do I have enough clothes on?' Because it was cold and we did it in November.

The 'why' part came during the event when a bunch of cancer survivors, at various times during the day and night, showed up to ride with me, to express their thanks for me for doing this and to tell their stories. And that was the moment when I'm like, 'Oh my gosh. This is much more than just a bike ride. This is a way for people to come together and build community and have hope and healing.' So that's what we've been doing ever since.

De la Canal: You've met so many people whose lives have been touched by cancer because of this event. Is there a story or a moment from over the years that has stuck with you?

Lueders: Yeah, I mean, there's a couple every year that I look forward to. The start of the event is always magical on Friday night. There's hundreds of survivors that come out and we give them their own start at the beginning and honor them.

There's a part in the evening where I go up to the top of the loop and just sit quietly and watch the riders go by, and all those blinking red lights that go by me in the middle of the night, thinking about every one of those is a personal cancer story.

Those are special times that happen every year, and of course, there's just hundreds of teams and individual stories that are part of the fabric of 24 Hours of Booty.

De la Canal: I also want to ask you about the name of this event, which is a reference to the Myers Park Booty Loop — kind of a funny name. I've heard that the origins are a little murky. Have you ever figured out how the Booty Loop got its name?

Lueders: Yeah, so that's a good question, because I moved here in '99, and I was at the Dowd Y — back then it was called the Central Y — and I asked the person where I should go for a run and the lady behind the desk said just run down East Boulevard and you'll hit the Booty Loop.

So "Booty Loop" had been here before I even moved to Charlotte, but yeah, I've tracked it down to the early '90s when it was mainly a bunch of cyclists that started riding around the loop. It's become sort of a proper noun, like, it's on people's MLS listings now, like, everybody knows where it is, and hopefully —

De la Canal: But the name, the name. Does it have something to do with booties?

Lueders: I think it has something to do with booties of all sorts of people running, walking, you know — again, I didn't name it that. But you know, it's part of the special sauce of Charlotte, and yeah, we have a little bit of fun with the name. But that's part of the fabric. It's part of the fun, right?

De la Canal: Yeah, yeah. Well finally, can you talk about the organizations that you're fundraising for, and why these funds are important for people living with cancer right now?

Lueders: Yeah, so we fund cancer navigation and survivorship services, and what that is is when someone gets diagnosed, they have no idea what to do, and cancer navigators walk you through it — like literally take you through every step of the way.

And then survivorship services (include) over 60 programs we fund at Levine Children's Hospital, Levine Cancer Institute that people use to get their strength back, their mental side back and their spiritual side back. So it could be art therapy, healing, touch, acupuncture, music therapy.

There's again over 60 programs that people use and that feels good because people use those services every single day right here in Charlotte. A lot of them are out here riding and their doctors are out here riding with them, so it's sort of a special time to all come together and celebrate survivorship.