Baja Beach Bash Fundraiser

By the Baja Bound Staff

The Baja Beach Bash is an annual moto ride and fundraiser that began back in 2009. The event was created by Tim and Jennifer Morton from Baja Bound Moto Adventures, multi-time SCORE champion Cameron Steele and 11 time Baja 1000 winner Johnny Campbell. The Baja Beach Bash was started as a fun way to introduce people to the incredible off-road riding and breathtaking scenery that Baja has to offer, while raising donations and awareness for the Rancho Santa Marta orphanage and school in San Vicente, BCN.

And while the Baja Beach Bash started 12 years ago, the history goes back much further for Baja racer Cameron Steele. “My dad started supporting the Rancho Santa Marta efforts 30 years ago and was great friends with Bill Lawrence. My dad has since passed, but our dedication to Rancho Santa Marta will not waver. We do the Beach Bash in dad’s memory now as everyone involved with the event knew him. He was always a big part of the support crew for the trip.”

Rancho Santa Marta is a non-denominational ministry that was founded in 1980 by Bill and Kaye Lawrence. At that time Bill and Kaye saw a need to help homeless, orphaned and abused children in the local community. They were able to buy an abandoned pig farm and began slowly building up the facility. They soon realized that there was an additional need in the community: special education. Many families with learning disabled children didn’t have access to the educational resources they needed. They began bussing in special needs children during the school year, and the program continued to grow as the facility expanded.

Today, Rancho Santa Marta supports almost 50 full time children and they bus in an additional 250 children from the community during the school year. They now have a kindergarten, elementary and junior high school with a special education mainstreaming program for children with learning disabilities. Their current development project is to create a trades classroom to teach children skills to work as chefs, beauticians, electricians, and masons.

Over the last 40 years, all of these programs have been made possible by generous donations from volunteers as well as fundraising events like the Baja Beach Bash. Unfortunately the 2020 Baja Beach Bash moto ride has been postponed due to Covid, but the crew has set up a Facebook fundraiser for the school, or you can donate directly on the Rancho Santa Marta website. Check out some of the Baja Beach Bash videos from previous events below, and please donate to help the children of Rancho Santa Marta! We realize that times are tough right now, so if you don't have the means to donate, please help us by sharing the Facebook fundraiser page and this article to help us get the word out!

Editor's Note: Many non-profit organizations that work in Baja have been deeply impacted by Covid-19. In an effort to drum up support, Baja Bound will be featuring a different non-profit every few weeks. In the meantime, please visit some of our friends in the links below and make a donation if you have the means to do so!