The Federal and Provincial governments look at vehicles as a luxury. If you can't take public transit, then you need a prescription to get help and even then, the help offered to make a vehicle wheelchair accessible is only $5K from the Federal Government.
There is NO help to covert a motorcycle to accommodate a side car or make it into a trike.
You and I, we who ride, know that a motorcycle or trike can be a sanity line for many. Just look how many veterans, solders and first responders ride - they will all tell you that wind therapy is a valid therapy - yet no one in "power" sees it.We also know that wheels mean a certain freedom and independence.
Our first recipient for this very special, newly founded event is a veteran. This veteran will get their motorcycle in BC during Wounded Warriors Weekend Week. This veteran by all accounts, is one of the most giving and compassionate people out there and would never ask for help for themselves.
It's hard to raise funds for an anonymous face....it's hard for people to wrap their head around supporting someone who is incognito but I promise you this much, when this veteran gets their new wheels, you are going to see someone with a grin from ear to ear who is then going to be pissed because "I don't need your charity" is this person's mindset.
And then that grin will return.
You will get to "MEET" this veteran through photos and videos of them getting their bike - I PROMISE.
We need to keep this person anonymous until they get their bike, we have to for their sake. If they found out what we were doing for them, well let's just say pride goeth before a fall and so, until its a done deal, we are keeping a lid on the recipient's name.
I promised that the help I got last year from this community, I would find a way to pay forward ten fold....and because of the support of great volunteers and supporters the intent now is to pay that kindness, that help forward a hundred fold.
Rob Truscott, JM McKinney, Les Shandruk and the gang from the Northern Gateway Motorcycle Association, 1st, 2nd, 3rd C.A.V. and C.A.V. National, Cindy Irvine, Rob Himmelspach, Blackjack's Roadhouse, Edmonton Harley-Davidson, Mountainview Harley-Davidson, JP Cormier and Tim Isberg, Cori from Steel Horses Photography, IOMC, RCL Legion Riders, all of the volunteers who will be running booths and helping with registrations etc, (some 70 of them), the 40 or so sponsors we have, the team at Belt Drive Betty Media, Pat Varga, Cindy Murphy, all of these good people and SOOOO many more are the reason I/WE can host this event - without the aforementioned team - I AM all but powerless....but as a community we are SOOOO powerful and everyone has worked so hard to get us here...
As a team, our intent is to show this woman the best in hospitality, generosity and compassion and create the best fund and awareness raising opportunity that we can.
We intend to give her voice the audience it deserves, because she speaks for so many who can't speak for themselves...
Folks, on Saturday, she and the NASH Project will be 30 days into their journey of healing! They still have many miles to traverse - let's give them the support and send off they need to keep putting one boot, one hoof infant of the other.
PLEASE, join us, RAIN OR SHINE - we won't make fun of you for showing up in a cage (much)...we NEED your support, so we can support those who need it.
It costs on average, $5,000 to put a service dog into the care and control of a soldier, veteran or first responder that needs one.
It's going to cost $12,000 to give a veteran their sanity line back in the way of a motorcycle...
Without YOU - all of the work of our volunteers, all of the support of our sponsors, will be for naught. So PLEASE, come out, meet our team, ride/drive the poker run route, come eat some BBQ, listen to some great tunes , see what the vendors offer and most of all support those who rush in when everyone pulls back...
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| Fire Fighters in Grande Prairie doing their job last weekend |
Our soldiers and veterans - their jobs are critical to our well being as a nation...
Your support means everything and not just to us, the Wheels for Our Wounded team, but to Kate Mac & The Long Way Home Team, the NASH Project , Alpha K9, Paws Fur Thought, Valour Place & the Mattradd fundraiser as well as Wounded Warriors Weekend - in all your donations, your participation in the poker run, the silent auctions and 50/50 draws, the pledge challenge - will be helping 7 organizations provide outreach.
Visit www.wheelsforourwounded.ca visit the sponsors page, the supporters page, read about Kate Mac and TLWH 2015, the NASH Project, Wounded Warriors Weekend...and then please, be motivated enough that no matter WHAT MOTHER NATURE throws our way this weekend...please come out.
On Sunday May 31st join us for a Bikers Breakfast at Blackjacks from 8am to 9:30 AM and help us send Kate of in Grande style...she will leave while we are eating breakfast and we will then catch up to her at the Royal Canadian Legion in Leduc where we will share one final hug, one final thank you and send her and the NASH Project on their way to Chilliwak - over the Coquihalla...for Kate and the Trans Canada trail for the horse team.
Our soldiers, our veterans and our first responders don't back out of doing their jobs if it rains, snows, hails, floods...please don't let them down if Mother Nature decides to be a bag...
DRIVE, RIDE or DOG SLED in - but please, come out and support these important causes...
Thanks folks and if you are blessed to be riding today, please remember to ride like everyone around you is blind and cannot see you.
Belt Drive Betty
Editor & Rider
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