Vertical ramps, box jumps, and flatland performances brought out hundreds of BMX fans to the parking lot of Bike Line in Naperville Saturday, July 12th to witness the seventh annual Summer BMX Show.

Known world-wide, Aurora resident Matt Wilhelm, professional BMX biker showed his audience of over 500, a variety of bike tricks, skills and safety tips.

BMX, or Bicycle Motorcross, is a sport that began in the early 1970’s in California.

Wilhelm, who grew up in neighboring Lisle, along with the Division BMX professional team out of Milwaukee put on two shows; the first started at noon and a second followed at three.

Fans were excited and surprised after witnessing the complex stunts. 12 year old Steven Novotn who was celebrating his birthday got to perform a trick with Wilhelm.

“I’m a fan of him,” said Novotn. “It was really cool to go up with Matt.”

Wilhelm has won two national titles, three X-Games medals for flatland bike riding, and a silver medal from the World Championships. He encouraged kids to never give up and that a lot of practice is what led him to become an award winning professional BMX biker.

The Summer BMX Show began seven years ago as a fun summer happening. After successful turnouts, store owner Ed Palasz, whose wife is a breast cancer survivor, transitioned the event into a fundraiser.

“Originally, it started off just to show people in Naperville some bike tricks and then it evolved into, why don’t we do something else with it and then we started the donations for breast cancer.” Palasz said.

This summer’s BMX event raised $700, the most money the group has seen.

Proceeds for the event also benefited the Hinsdale Wellness House which is an organization that provides support to cancer patients, their families, and friends.

Emily Pettinger Reports