December 7, 2022 - What pedals in gear and brings holiday cheer? Arizona Party Bike!

The 73rd annual Winterhaven Festival of Lights starts December 10 and runs through December 26 this year, and Arizona Party Bike is here to help you and your friends, family, or coworkers have a holiday party you won't forget!

Arizona Party Bike has been running Winterhaven tours since 2014, when Winterhaven board member Jeff DeConcini saw an article about the new party bike company in the Arizona Daily Star and approached owner Robert Mayer about bringing the concept to Winterhaven.

"As a local startup owner, I was ecstatic, and lucky, to have the opportunity to participate in Winterhaven," said Mayer, "It was a huge break for my business."

"As a new concept, the party bike took quite a bit longer to gain traction than I thought it would. I was totally broke trying to get this business off the ground. Winterhaven ended up being half my revenue for my first year in business, which allowed me to get out of the hole and start expanding," said Mayer.

Fast forward eight years later, and party bikes at Winterhaven have become a yearly tradition for many Tucsonans, and the company has expanded from one party bike in 2014 to 30 bikes across multiple cities and states.

"Winterhaven now makes up a small amount of our revenue company-wide, but will always have a special place to me. So I thought to myself: With everything going on in the world, how can our participation in Winterhaven be a unique opportunity to support our community?" said Mayer.

The Winterhaven Festival supports the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona. In 2021, the Tucson community donated $39,437 and 57,612 pounds of food to the Food Bank during the Festival of Lights.

"With rising food prices and homelessness, it made sense to me that Arizona Party Bike could make a huge contribution by turning our Winterhaven tours into a fundraiser for the food bank," said Mayer, "Arizona Party Bike will donate every dollar of profit it makes from Winterhaven this year to the food bank. Hopefully we can increase what they raise during the festival by $10,000-$15,000."

At the risk of writing a novel, Mayer has one more thing to say about why businesses and individuals should consider giving generously this year.

"Between covid shutdowns and now rising prices and the prospect of a recession, many small business owners have had a lot of fear the last two years. I get it. We were shut down for five months straight. But don't let fear drive your decision making," said Mayer. "Pay your people well and give back to your community. There is no better act of optimism than giving it away knowing that tomorrow is another day."

For more information on party bike tours during Winterhaven, visit: https://www.arizonapartybike.com/tucson/winterhaven-rides/

Contact Robert Mayer by phone at 520-647-6206 or email at robert@arizonapartybike.com.

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