Photo: Contributed

Even with great support from the community, a Penticton biker that was hoping to get into a competition and donate all his prize money money to charity has not made it on to the next round. 

Darrell Richards was campaigning to be featured on the Dream Choppers TV show and then donate his win to Penticton's Discovery House, inspired by its work helping men struggling with addiction.

Richards expressed his mixed emotions on a post to social media on Friday, announcing that he didn’t advance. 

“It certainly wasn’t from lack of trying as we had many media outlets assisting us in getting the good word out there, and most certainly not from lack of community support in voting. We had the most loyal and aggressive voting class,” the post reads.

The organizers contacted Richards and expressed to him that unfortunately, he fell the winner of my quarterfinal has managed to win by buying his way into the next round, an option to pay for more votes in the contest. 

“We accomplished some great things in this contest raising awareness for Discovery House, and through that we opened up many doors for them in their financial support. Companies have reached out to them that may not have before, and that’s what this was all about. Helping Discovery House advance their fundraising efforts.”

"I can’t thank Discovery House, the local media, my support team helping me with my social media presence, and especially you, the voters. We accomplished great things, and we won’t give up our fight to help raise awareness and funding for such a great cause.”

Richards finished his post by thanking everyone and to stay tuned for an upcoming announcement regarding the next step to help raise funds.