Charity ride down Route 44 to benefit Millerton child with kidney disease

MILLERTON — Community members are organizing a charity motorcycle cruise later this month to help a Millerton family whose 5-year-old son is preparing for a kidney transplant after years of surgeries and treatment for congenital kidney disease.

Crew Slater, a 5-year-old Millerton resident, was born with chronic kidney disease and is currently in need of a kidney transplant. Members of motorcycle club Red Knights New York #33 are planning a motorcycle cruise from Millerton’s Firehouse on Century Boulevard to Mahoney’s Irish Pub in Poughkeepsie, New York, on Aug. 29 as a fundraiser for Slater and his family.

Registration for the community cruise will begin at 10 a.m. that day at the Millerton Firehouse. Organizers are asking for $25 per rider and $15 per passenger to participate in the ride, with proceeds going to Slater’s family. Riders will depart from the firehouse at noon and drive down Route 44 in a group to Mahoney’s Irish Pub in Poughkeepsie, where registration fees will provide one free drink.

Cassidey Slater, Crew’s mother, said he has been struggling with multiple congenital issues since birth, including improperly functioning kidneys, bladder and colon.

Crew underwent his first surgery at just days old in August 2020. In the nearly six years since, he has endured countless visits to hospitals in Albany and Boston and multiple surgeries to treat his medical conditions.

“It’s just been hospitals, surgeries, routine visits, blood work,” Cassidey said. “All of the above ever since he was born.”

The years of medical visits have strained the family, Cassidey said, but it hasn’t broken their resolve. Despite his health struggles, Crew faces life with excitement and happiness, she said, enjoying time outside with his three siblings at the Slater family’s two-acre property in Millerton.

Crew is currently undergoing treatment to prepare him for a desperately needed kidney transplant. Cassidey said he has reached stage 4 kidney disease, currently functioning at just 20% capacity of a set of healthy kidneys. Stage 5 of the disease is total kidney failure.

Rob Decker of Millerton organized the charity cruise set for the end of August. Flyers for the event also contain a QR code leading to an anonymous questionnaire to screen potential donors.

Cassidey praised Decker for getting involved and helping to organize the event. She said Decker and others have created T-shirts and bracelets to sell as fundraisers in addition to the planned cruise later this month. And Decker did all of this without even knowing the family personally.

“He’s just gone above and beyond,” Cassidey said. “For a stranger to want to meet us and do all this stuff for us — there’s still good people out there.”

The fundraiser is a community effort, drawing the support of the Red Knights bikers, Decker and Linn Rubin of North East Ford in Millerton.

Crew isn’t the only Slater child to face a troubling diagnosis — his older brother, 7-year-old Clayton, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of five and requires regular insulin shots.

Despite the hardships, Cassidey said she and her husband work to provide stability and fun for their children. She said her kids spend ample time outside at their two-acre property, and the family takes frequent hiking and camping trips. The couple have four children — 9-year-old Madeline, 7-year-old Clayton, 5-year-old Crew and 3-year-old Levi.

“They’re not scared of what’s thrown at them,” Cassidey said. “They’re going to go through whatever’s thrown at them just like us.”