Belt Drive Betty's Blog: Fundraising - Where the Money has Gone.

For those not up to speed, a number of veterans and military groups are up in arms and are trying to discredit me because of the offence I took over a MEME that was made public by a group called Military Minds.

Now, because I said "Hey - Civilians, this is what Military Minds thinks of you and I"....they are attempting to smear my name and slander me - accusing me of making money off of the backs of our military...this is the meme that I took offence to...

This is not the Vietnam era when friends of mine like Captain Ed Ballinger were being spit on and called disgusting rude names at every turn.

This is 2016, a time when we, the majority of the civilians of the world have an appreciation of our military like never before.

We are more likely to buy a person in uniform a cup of coffee or shake their hand and thank them for the job they do.

We advocate loudly to our MP's, to other civilians to educate them about the New Veteran's Charter and the inadequacies in the veteran's support systems within VAC. We work hard to fill the voids that are created because no matter how hard our Government may try to be everything to everyone, they fall short.

We fundraise, we proclaim our support at events like the Hero's Highway Ride, Red Friday and oh so many hundreds more.

We work to raise funds for all sorts of military related charities.

Here is my fundraising history - the condensed version.

I have been donating free advertising in my newspaper to the riding clubs and the charities they support for over 13 years, many of them military or veteran. The average ad is worth $85, now multiply that number by an average of 350 events that we sponsor with an average of 4 free ads per event. Now multiply that number by 13 years.

Since day one of my business I promised to pay it forward and I always have.
Corporate events pay for their advertising but the riding clubs and their charities get free marketing.

My efforts on behalf of our veterans and military are many.

The Bikers United in Remembrance Patch sells for $10 - they cost me about $3.60 a piece with shipping, duty, exchange and taxes. My new Canadian supplier charges me about the same when I buy in lots of 50 or 100. If I am ordering for lots of groups all at once then we can drive the costs down considerably. We had a good run on them when they first were designed, but now we sell the odd one here or there, but not many.

I have donated monies to several veterans causes and have sold these patches in batches of 100 at my dead cost and below to groups like the CVFR, Paws Fur Thought and other veterans Orgs for them to raise money with. I have donated and given many of these patches away. I released my artwork under a creative commons license and have given a number of military groups permission to use the art for their fundraising purposes. Ask Smokey from the CVFR Ottawa, ask Jason Mullis, Medric Cousineau, Trapper of the CVFR Calgary....

On My Military Support Conga - we donated a bike to The Canadian Legion of Riders through a contest we hosted with Johnny Pag Canada, my company paid for that bike through contra advertising. I also raised and donated approx $7K that was divided up between Vets Canada, Paws Fur Thought and the Military Police National Relay Ride. At each ride of 20 - 30 bikers, and there were about 20 actual rides, the money that was collected was handled by the local riding club and we donated 25% of whatever we raised at the local ride back to their community. The money was always accounted for by someone local.
I funded 90% of the trip through my company - 92 days on the road in over 80 communities meeting with small groups of 1 - 30 riders, raising awareness. I had huge assistance from CAV, the Military Group I have belonged to for 12 years.

Please feel free to contact Jim Lawther at VETS Canada, Medric Cousineau of Paws Fur Thought and the Lamont French of the Military Police National Relay Ride to verify that donations were made.

Our first ever Wheels for Our Wounded Poker Run saw us donate over $4,000 to Kate MacEachern and the Long Way Home. After expenses we had $1,600 left over and a ton of swag.

Here is the blog post outlining where we stood last May: http://beltdrivebetty.blogspot.ca/2015/06/wheels-for-our-wounded-inaugural-event.html

Rob Truscott handled all of the money for our Poker Run. He is a solider who is actively serving.
He can vouch for the accounting and the fact that we did not meet our target of $9,999 to buy the bike. We had a deal for a bike, we had a veteran chosen but we could not get to our goal.

We were unable to purchase the bike from Mountainview Harley Davidson and I had to tell that to Peter Murie and I had to tell Brandie the marketing manager at Edmonton Harley Davidson that we were unable to meet our target and that we wouldn't be needing the riding gear after all. Kate MacEachern was the intended recipient of the bike and she was informed that we were not in a position to donate a bike. It was the hardest thing I have ever done.

We have only had one fundraiser and that was last May.

You see, I ended up with adrenal fatigue cause by tumours on my adrenaline glands in July of last year and was unable to do any other fundraising. I am still recovering from that and am told it could be another year or better before I am back to "normal".

We also had a number of our tee shirts go missing and when they arrived at the Greyhound Station the box was wet, destroyed, in a plastic bag. The contents inside were decimated - full of mildew.
Sadly the shipper did not buy insurance and so we have less swag to sell than we should, but again everything is documented including photos.

We donated swag to Mark Creamer and a group in PEI who held a Wheels for Our Wounded fundraiser last August to help a first responder in PEI to repair his side car. They purchased tee shirts for their event from our supplier and we supplied pins, patches, medallions and challenge coins at no cost to them. They still have swag and tee shirts and raised over $400 profit from their event for their first responder.

Did we do all we wanted to in our first year? NO - but we did something.

We helped two groups with funds.

This year we are raising funds for Eric Magill so that we can have a scooter modified to accept his wheelchair. Although we will be holding a poker run, we will be fundraising until the scooter is paid for, we will be launching a crowd funding campaign to keep the fundraising going after the event.

We are working with Jon Burman from Classy Chassis in Lakefield Ontario as Eric lives in Trenton.

At our Poker Run this year, Rob Truscott is again our treasurer and he will make sure our paperwork is accurate. Backing him up will be Joey Carothers of the Brunch for Broads Group that is is our key volunteer group. I never handle the money at our charity events, I always put people in place who are stellar human beings to do that job. This way there is transparency.

I am also spearheading a project to build a war monument. It's going to cost between $55 and $70,000 to build.

ANAVETS will be handling the funds - the CAV is supporting us as I am leading this project as a CAV member.

Throughout the years there have been many, many other smaller things that I have done to contribute to the betterment of the world around me.

I am not looking for a hero cookie, nor am I tooting my own horn. I am simply stating the facts and providing you with the names of organizations and people that you can ask - did she ever really donate to you? And you will get your answer.

Now on to my lawsuit, it is well documented as well.

It was, what is termed a shotgun suit. 7 defendants including the Mayor of Sicamous, the City of Sicamous, Steve Hammer of Summer Stomp, Bernie Aubin of the Headpins, Vince Lewis a land owner and the Sicamous Chamber of Commerce, a non profit plus myself.

My lawyer termed it a nuisance suit.

The lawsuit was dropped a couple of months ago. We had quit taking donations for my defence after about the first six months. The page still exists for posterity's sake as there is information and documents that may be of assistance to small business and charities.

That page is in an ARCHIVED STATE. The lawsuit cost far more than the monies that were raised as we had to force the case to court. I stood for my community, I did everything I could to educate people and I did my investigation thoroughly. That chapter is over.

These are the facts of what I have done to serve my community, veteran, military or civilian, riders all.

I do not get dark humour, that's what my friend Rob Truscott called the Meme that I take offence to.

But as I expressed to him and others, they are expecting civilians to understand something that they have no context or reference for.

Even I with a military mother and father, a cousin in the 22nd Regiment and uncles retired from the RCMP - had never experienced this "DARK HUMOUR", if this is humour then I am sorry I do not get it.

My saying that I will not support Military Minds Inc if that is how they feel about civilians is just that - MY STAND - I will not support them and not just because of the MEME either - Because when I spoke out about it I was called and continue to be called horrid, horrid names.

I was treated like I was a Vietnam Vet and this was 40 years ago...the dialogue was disgusting and disturbing.

Had they shared this Meme with their members only and not made it public - they could have had their good old laugh at us - we the civilians who try to understand, who try to support...we would have been none the wiser.

But no, they made it public, to civilians who don't understand the ART OF WAR.

It was in my mind ill advised and I will never support the organization called Military Minds Inc., and especially not now that they and their supporters have launched a massive smear campaign against me.

There are many, many veterans organizations that can use a hand and I will continue to do what I can, where I can, because I can.

I will put my support where it is wanted.

After all I am just a civilian and my opinion on a warriors service is not appreciated by Military Minds Inc.