A Few Facts About Los Silverados

Los Silverados began in August 1997 with the goal of raising money for Yonge Street Mission. The idea was to make the exercise interesting and fun, hence our motto "To make a contribution and enjoy the ride". Yonge Street Mission is an organization dedicated to helping the poor and disadvantaged of Toronto, no matter their race, religion or where they come from. YSM has been doing this for over 150 years.
Los Silverados chose YSM because of two key factors:

  • An ecumenical approach to meeting its objectives  
  • An incredible transparency in the way it functions. You truly can see your money at work. When most of us were growing up, the last thing our mothers would let us have was a motorcycle - forget about belonging to a motorcycle gang! Los Silverados offers the chance to forget what your mother told you and change all that. We created an imaginary motorcycle club that everyone with the entrance fee of one hundred dollars could join. You get a membership plaque, a patch for your jacket and everything! Since that fateful day in '97, Los Silverados continue to work to make a difference…

Our Members -Over 1000 members

In Canada, our members hail from British Columbia to Nova Scotia and many small towns and cities in between · We have members in the United States, Bahamas, Panama, Ireland, Russia, Germany, Austria and Israel. Yes, we even have members in Texas… · We may be the only motorcycle gang with a Jack Russell terrier named Chloe who is a full-fledged member · Our youngest member, Sam Hartwick signed on at one month old · Our membership includes minimum wage earners, millionaires and everyone in-between, doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, teachers, students, salespeople, ministers, production managers, healthcare workers, golfers, couch potatoes, even the odd headhunter

How We Support Yonge Street Mission

A simple program that started by feeding the Youth at Evergreen (a youth drop in centre on Yonge Street) one night a month has expanded over the years. In addition to the Centre's breakfast and lunch programmes, Silverados have helped to provide evening meals 3 nights a week from September to May each year. The Mission benefits from food programmes like Second Harvest. In addition, Silverados helped feed, supply food or pay for 63,000 meals for the homeless youth of Toronto. Additionally, Los Silverados have been instrumental in getting a new kitchen installed and equipped at Evergreen, arranging for significant donations of food from major Canadian manufacturers and gathering many corporate and individual meal sponsors. - By the way, these hungry kids don't just come from Toronto - many have wandered to the Big City from Vancouver, Saskatoon or Saint John

  • Silverados also help feed adults at the Christian Community Centre every Thursday evening
  • One Silverado has piloted a "mentoring programme" to work with the Youth at Evergreen. Several others volunteer regularly in the Health Clinic and the Employment Resource Centre
  • For the past few years, the annual Los Silverados Golf Tournament has contributed over $80,000 annually to support the ongoing maintenance and growth of YSM's Computer Literacy Centre at 310 Gerrard Street East. This money, along with a large number of computers refurbished and donated by members of the "gang", has helped over 400 children, aged 8-12 to not only complete a computer literacy course, but also to walk home with a refurbished Pentium III or better computer under their arm - and a gift of AOL Internet service for 10 years! This is not just a "hand out" to disadvantaged kids, but also a "hand up" out of the ghetto of poverty · Apotex, a dedicated supporter of Los Silverados and the Mission, annually donates over $150,000 of pharmaceuticals to the Evergreen Health Clinic, considered to be the best free clinic in Canada.
  • Two years ago, A Silverado donated over 2500 new boots - delivered in May, stored by another Silverado until November and then passed out at no charge.
  • For the past 8 years, Silverados have organized and executed the "Christmas Ornament Extravaganza", gathering donations in excess of $20,000 from Mission supporters under the downtown office towers and at charity desks in several prominent local shopping malls
  • As a result of awareness of YSM created by the Ornament Extravaganza, First Canadian Place undertook a used clothing drive to donate clothing to DoubleTake, a used clothing store operated by the Mission and designed not only to service the community with quality goods, but also to create employment for people served by the Mission's various programmes. The clothing drive has now spread to 14 office buildings. Of course, Silverados help to welcome clothing donors, collect hundreds of bags of clothing and transport the goods to the DoubleTake facility for laundering, sorting, pricing and display for sale.
  • Spring, 2003, Los Silverados began a Bursary for Mission youth to enable them to get an education not normally reachable for them. Within two years, the fund has reached almost $1.2 Million, including government funding of $77,000. Partnering with George Brown College and other institutions, YSM is now in a position to provide resources to help a child academically reach as far as he or she can.
  • A Silverado organizes a summer boat cruise in Toronto Harbour - dinner, dancing and sharing stories with friends - and incidentally putting about $9000 into the Bursary fund.
  • Three years ago, Silverados donated used motorcycles to help two street workers do their job with the poor. · The annual "Blue Plate Special Scholarship Dinner" in early spring gives Silverados and their friends a chance to dine at Evergreen - the menu is from the 1950's, the youth don their whitest shirts and serve dinner - best of all we present Bursaries to qualifying youth. We raise a little money, we give some back - it's a great event.
  • We kick up our heels at the Silver Moon Ball in the Fall, party a bit , eat good food and dance to the best dance band in Toronto. We also raise a few dollars for YSM.
  • A very select group of Silverados belongs (at least temporarily) to the H.A.M. Motorcycle club. They take over a restaurant a few times a year to raise some money for the food programme at Evergreen. For true riders, this esoteric group also hosts an annual motorcycle extravaganza to some exotic destination like Pennsylvania.
  • With the various fundraising efforts, Silverados, in corporations, as entrepreneurs or as individual donors give the Mission an annual gift of almost $250,000.. This makes Los Silverados one of the largest donors to the Mission. "Informal" gifts of time, money and material are not recorded. The value of theses additional donations is in the tens of thousands of dollars, but more important, these "intangible" gifts allow YSM staff members to offer programmes and services, which would not otherwise be available.

Some members actually ride motorcycles (over 300), some ride skateboards, some skate, many golf, a few are couch potatoes, one has a shiny red scooter, another a shiny black Corvette..they come from all walks of life, in all shapes and sizes with one clear mandate: "to make a contribution and enjoy the ride".

FAQ's
What does Los Silverados mean?

  • Los = "the"
  • Silverados ="people with silver in their hair, silver in their jeans who are looking for life's silver lining”

The name could come from a mine in Mexico, or from a pickup truck - no one knows for sure.

What do Silverados do?

  • We ride motorcycles, we golf, we watch TV and over 50% of us enjoy being involved in one way or another with the Mission. We feed the kids at Evergreen. We feed adult homeless men at the Community Centre. We enjoy the Breakfast and Bike Blessing. We party at the Silver Moon Ball. We attend the annual Golf Tournament. We sell ornaments, we collect clothing, and we volunteer our time and expertise. We like supporting other groups who are trying to do something to help our disenfranchised neighbours.

Do I need to own a motorcycle to become a Silverado?

  • No, just donate $100 to YSM

Do I need to attend meetings?

  • No  we don't have any meetings

How do I join?

  • A lifetime membership with your own Silverado number is available for a donation of $100, go to the Membership page for more details

Why would I want to become a Silverado?

  • Because it's the right thing to do