Fat and Skinny Co-Director Gred Demopoulos prepares for Day 1 with volunteers. Photo by Gred Demopoulos.

By Shari Benyousky
Guest Columnist

Editor’s Note: This is the first of three articles on The Fat and Skinny event.

Column Note – This is a series focusing on local people, nonprofits, and businesses we enjoy without realizing their fascinating back-stories.

The Beginning, Friday, May 17

Every year at this time, as National Bicycle Month ends, the wild yellow irises along Winona Lake bloom, cottonwood piles along the curbs and sticks to sweaty cheeks, and the volunteers who have spent a year planning put on their matching T-shirts and prepare to spend three amazing, exhausting, and sometimes bloody days making this thing happen.

What is “this thing,” you ask? It’s the Fat and Skinny Tire Fest that happens in Warsaw, Winona Lake, and out into Kosciusko County. Fat and Skinny refer to the kinds of tires. This event welcomes everything from bumpy trail bike tires to smooth racing tires to puffy beach cruiser tires.

Let me take you behind the scenes of the various races to some snippets of this spectacular event. Keep in mind that it takes at least 330 unpaid volunteers plus hundreds of other support people watching children, baking food, and making things work, so the stories that I tell you are just those volunteers that I happened to run into with a spare moment to chat.

Friday, May 17

Volunteers had long since baked and delivered 1,000 cookies as thank yous to houses along the ride routes, stuffed thousands of goodie bags for racers, put up the big tent weighed down with concrete, and installed Fat and Skinny flags and signs in their first location (volunteers had to move the flags back and forth from Winona to Warsaw).

The Truss

Bikes up in Mad Anthony’s Downtown for the racers.

By the time I arrived at the Cerulean parking lot in Winona Lake midafternoon on Friday, a group was discussing the best way to put up “The Truss.” “That’s what we call THIS beast,” Volunteer (and former Robbie Gast Volunteer of the Year award winner) Kris Williams tells me as they pound together the heavy metal pieces of the start and finish line. “We bought this a few years ago from Sweetwater. It’s a professional concert truss heavy enough to hold banners and even speakers.” Putting up the thing involves a careful balance of strength and tool knowledge. I watched the volunteers contemplate how to get the top bar up in the air safely.

Kosciusko County Velo Cycling President Mike Cusick hands a hammer to volunteer Chase Guthrie. KCV puts on the Fat and Skinny. I asked him how they sleep during the festival and heard a snort from volunteer Jen Tikka who used to co-captain the Countryside Tour and now returns to town to volunteer for the weekend. Mike raised his eyebrows in agreement with her. “Yeah. Every hour that we can,” he said. “Like Friday and Saturday nights, I’m lucky to get 4 or 5 hours.” Tikka agreed. Throughout the three days of talking to volunteers of all kinds, I heard this number frequently.

Maria Demopoulos

After The Truss is up, Kris Williams waved down a woman wearing a burgundy volunteer T-shirt across the parking lot. “This is Maria Demopoulos,” he introduced us. “She’s married to co-founder Greg. Maria takes care of all the volunteers.”

“Yep. I married into volunteering,” Maria chuckled wryly. “I knew what I was getting into. At the beginning the only bike terms I knew were 10-speed and banana seat. Now, I line the 330 volunteers up and make sure everyone knows what they’re doing.”

Maria pointed out her T-shirt with a huge grin. She also makes sure every volunteer has one of those T-shirts, a food voucher, a cool bottle opener thank-you gift, and she lines up houses to host some of the racing teams that don’t have sponsors. “This opens doors for getting more teams here. Lodging is expensive.” Maria explained. We’ll get to those volunteers later.

Critical Mass Ride From Winona Lake To Warsaw

Later that evening I returned to Winona on my bike along with hundreds of others of all ages and skill levels. As the sun dipped into golden glow time, we rode en masse (critical mass means that there are so many bikes that cars can’t ignore them) in a long winding, happy stream of laughing, good-natured ribbing, cowbells and general joy.

A view of the critical mass ride from WInona to Warsaw on Friday night.

Once downtown Warsaw, the Mass Riders merged with the Warsaw Third Friday event. Usually, downtown is blocked off to cars for Third Fridays, but this evening involved more streets of white barricade fences for the Friday Night Criterium (lap race). I chatted with volunteers Tracy Gilliland and Bob Vitoux who had both spent the day assembling all those barricades. They showered each other with praise. Tracy pointed at Bob. “He helps everywhere. Anywhere he’s needed, he shows up.”

This praise became a theme that I heard over and over from volunteers. As Maria Demopoulos pointed out, “Nobody is getting paid for anything they are doing here. There are no financial kickbacks. Everyone does everything purely for the love of community and cycling.”

How Many Out-of-Town Visitors Come To This Event?

KCV Club President Mike Cusick helps two Louisville visitors on bikes.

As I ducked under the wandering 50-foot long pink dragon weaving through the crowds, I bumped into volunteer and local businessman Lyle Schrock. Lyle is the vice-president of the Kosciusko County Convention, Recreation, and Visitor Commission, which is funded through an Innkeeper’s tax collected from visitors who pay for lodging here. The commission awards grants intended to help draw out-of-town visitors here.

Lyle reminded me that the commission voted to support the Fat and Skinny with a $6,200 grant. Lyle grinned at his own small family in the early evening sunshine. “People don’t realize that this event brings somewhere between $1-2 million into the community with 7,000-10,000 visitors including teams coming from California.” He smiled for a picture and emphasized, “You won’t find a more bike-friendly, family-friendly event anywhere.”

As we talked, the Downtown Zimmer Biomet Criterium racers lapped behind us on one side and the WCC BMX Stunt Show bikers jumped ramps and performed flips on the other in front of Mad Anthony’s. The crowd oohed and aahed, as did the multiple vendors and downtown businesses enjoying the show. It was the perfect beginning for day 1 of the Fat and Skinny Tire Fest.

Stay Tuned for Part II – Saturday, May 18, 2024

Do YOU know of an interesting place, board, event, nonprofit, or person that you’d like to see featured behind the scenes someday? Send SB Communications LLC an email at [email protected].