Jasper and Edson Road Trip

I am heading out in an hour so that I can attend the Jasper Poker Run and the Edson Toy Run.

The weather here in GP is wonderful and I can't wait to hit the open road.

No matter what event you are attending this weekend, PLEASE ride safe.

Belt Drive Betty
National VP
Alliance for Injured Motorcyclists

When bikers act like brothers and sisters - amazing things happen!

There's a lot of politics in the biker community - there always has been, I guess there will always be. (Fighting's part of family just as much as banding together in times of need and common causes) But when the chips are down and the gloves come off and we get down to the basics of acting like brothers and sisters there are miracles that happen.

BIG and LITTLE MIRACLES!

A little while ago the Handle Bar Hideout in Sylvan Lake held a downed rider poker run. They raised $660 and donated it to AIM-Can - the Peace Country Chapter here in Grande Prairie, since we are the only official AIM-Can Chapter in the province at the moment.

Tonight at our meeting our Vice President Larry DeBolt (Toys for Tots Member) and our Past President Robin Peterman (CMC Member) put forth a motion that was past - for our chapter to send $660 to the Damon Nagy Family Trust in High River and $660 to the Duane Burr Family.  Duane and his wife just had a baby and we know a few extra dollars could probably be put to use there and Damon has 5 kids to support so...

It was felt that since a business from central Alberta had supported us with a gift we should match it and send it back south.

Gives me goose bumps - I gotta tell you. This, this is what I love about the biker community.  You guys and dolls are some wonderful people!

Belt Drive Betty
AIM-Can National VP
www.aim-can.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

Because of the biker community - A Miracle Happened!

Over the last few weeks we printed two articles in the Busted Knuckle Chronicles - one in French and one in English about an Ontario Chrome Diva who needed help and man did the people who read the Busted Knuckle Chronicles come through in a BIG way.

Two donors - two matches - were found for Diva Lise. At least two people went for the tests and were identified as matches and now on September 22nd, Lise will go for her first consultation for a bone marrow transplant!

I am so humbled and so honored that two of the people who read this paper took the time to give the gift of life. I wished I could hug and kiss you! Lise had no other avenue to have her story told and her plea to be heard. Because you took the time to read the paper - because you took the time to go for the blood test our gal Lise has a shot!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

The Dumb Ass of the Day Award

The Dumb Ass of the Day Award belongs to a rider from Notre-Dame that was caught doing 151 kilometers per hour in a 50 zone. Not bad enough, he blew over twice the legal limit!

Guys like this make me wonder if we will ever see safer road ways.

Thunder City Power and Leisure Antique Motorcycle Show was held in Regina this past weekend. By all accounts the crowd that came out was very appreciative of the old rides of the Regina and area community!

BC - the lower mainland in particular seems to be having more than it's share of motorcycle accidents. One Rider is dead after an accident in Surrey and two people were taken to hospital after their ride was cut off by an SUV inn Langley.

I can't say it enough, safer road ways has got to become a mission in this community, we are loosing far too many good people and seeing many more injured and maimed for life.

It's enough to break your heart.

If you are lucky enough to be riding today, please use your head for something beside a helmet rack and ride like everyone around you is blind and can't see you.

Belt Drive Betty
National VP
Alliance for Injured Motorcyclists of Canada
www.beltdrivebetty.com

Toy Runs getting lots of support in uncertain economic times

The reports in the news feeds on the Toy Runs that have been taking place are very positive.

Both Moose Jaw and Medicine Hat saw record numbers of riders attend.

Moose Jaw with over 300 bikes and Medicine Hat with 850!

In other news a man from the Southwestern Saskatchewan riding community passed away this weekend when he swerved to miss a deer. Our hearts go out to Randy's family and friends.

Our new events calendars are almost ready to go.
If you want to post your 2010 events, please get in touch!

I am putting the finishing touches on this week's Busted Knuckle Chronicles so I'll talk to you all tomorrow!
If you are riding today please us your head for something besides a helmet rach and ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you.

Belt Drive Betty
National VP
Alliance for Injured Motorcyclists

The Hinton Toy Run, a great event that dumb asses are trying to ruin...

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Hinton Toy Run.
It was wonderful to see 125 bikes come out to participate in the 47 kilometer route through town.  The Foothills Road Riders Association who hosts the event has had a rough winter with their president away working in Fort McMurray and the rest of the executive also consumed by work - they literally put their 24th Annual Toy Run together in a week.

They filled a pick up truck and a trailer with toys! The towns people of Hinton were lined up on the streets, many with toys. It was truly impressive how much the town supports this event. The RCMP blocked many intersections, volunteers blocked at the rest and the parade stayed very tight. The fire trucks that led the procession kept a really nice pace and everyone arrived to the campground just outside of town safe and sound.

It could have been very different though.
You see, there were by my count a half dozen young men in their late 20's to mid thirties who felt it necessary to have a beer in the parking lot at the mall before the parade got under way.

You read right - in the parking lot at the mall...BEFORE the parade.
Drinking, in the open with kids and families who don't ride present. What a wonderful example! NOT!
I have to wonder why.  I do not understand how people can be so thoughtless.
The FRRA has worked very hard to get the RCMP and the fire department's support for the event. So why would these riders put their need for a drink ahead of the very cause they are supposed to be supporting?

Had one of the seven officers that was present at the mall parking lot witnessed these people being selfish dumb asses, the support this Toy Run is given by the RCMP may have changed drastically.

I shake my head. In my humble opinion, these riders should be taken out in the back 40 and taught a few lessons in respect and common sense. There is a time and place for everything and in my humble opinion this was NOT the place to be drinking.

These drinkers got lucky. None of them caused an accident, none of them got caught.

However, by virtue of the fact that they were drinking, they put every other rider at risk, they put the Toy Run and the FRRA's relationship with the RCMP at risk.
They were lucky; dumb and selfish, but lucky.

I have heard of other charitable events where the RCMP who are working at the event as traffic blockers or leading parades do a walk through before the event/parade starts and ticket people for helmet, pipes and other violations. I have always thought that was wrong, but perhaps I am the one who is wrong for thinking that way. Perhaps their walk abouts have more to do with their knowledge of human nature and trying to protect other people from the dumb asses of the world.

If you are fortunate enough to be riding today, please use your head for something besides a helmet rack and please ride like everyone around you is blind and can't see you.

Belt Drive Betty
National VP - AIM-Can
Alliance for Injured Motorcyclists of Canada

Charitable Causes and Politics: When Oil Meets Matches…

When the idea to start a newsletter that would help riders find out what was going on in our community formed in my head almost 7 years ago, I went to a number of local businesses, shared the idea, some began advertising right away and the Busted Knuckle Chronicles was born. I look back on my naïveté, my enthusiasm and my passion... I had finally found my home, my place.

I knew NOTHING about computers, nothing about publishing or the internet and I certainly did not understand how important diplomacy is.

I only knew that my community seriously needed some information and communication tools.

I went to all of the local dealerships and bike shops to get them to put the newsletter on their counters. I got approval from the various managers and started making my weekly deliveries, back then we were delivered on Tuesdays. After one such Tuesday I found myself in need of a special bolt for my motorcycle and I went to a local dealer to get one. While at the parts counter, I noticed that there were no news letters in the display stand. Upon investigation I found out that the owner of the dealership had thrown them out because a competitors ad was on the front page.

Well, being new to all of this I messed that whole scene up so bad. I confronted the dealer, he and I had words and to make a long story short I wrote an unflattering article and urged people to contact customer service at the head office if they found the treatment as offending as I did. Any charity I worked with I steered away from that dealer as I had no desire to ever be treated that way again.

Over time, as I grew into this editor’s position I had taken on, I started to realize a whole lot of things. I realized I had acted wrongly all those years ago. That perpetuating a feud, a personality conflict served no one. I wanted to see everyone working together and the entire community benefiting but, I hadn’t done a very good job with my very first encounter with resistance.  If I was to hold true to my beliefs and core values, I knew I had to apologize, I had to let go of the feud.

It took me some time to come to this realization, three years to be exact.
One day I screwed up the courage and prepared to eat some humble pie.

I went to his place of business, I looked him in the eye and told him that what I had done was wrong and that I regretted it. I expressed that I had taken his actions as a personal insult  and that I had been unprofessional. I shook the man’s hand, he said he appreciated the apology and thanked me for coming in.

From then on, I made a point to invite the dealer and its riding club to every function being held with in the larger motorcycle community here.

The riding club as a group has come out to two functions and the dealer to one.
My heart was happy. It appeared we were beginning to get past some of the hurt and animosity.

Recently, I had a discussion with a member of the said dealer's motorcycle group.
I have dealt with this individual over a number of years and have always had a friendly relationship with him. This man had come to me with an idea for Toys for Tots 30th Anniversary and how he and his group had some interest in working with Toys for Tots. Well, I took that information back to our president, he and the board felt it would be terrific for our group to have this riding club working so closely with us.

Things were looking up, wounds were being healed, but apparently not for all.

I phoned this riding club member recently to see how plans were progressing for this special little project and I was told that plans were not progressing and that in fact his chapter had decided to not be involved after all. I was flabbergasted. I did not see that one coming at all.

I asked why. This man had a hard time spitting it out. He tried every way he could to dance around the answer, but finally he told me that I was the reason. It appears that some of the the new executive of this riding club would rather hold on to the old grudge.

He told me that if I had anything to do with the organization of any event, his Chapter would not be a part of it. It appears that this feud has not stopped for some of the members of this dealers riding club after all.

Some people in this riding club took the dealers side in the feud. These members of this dealers riding club have either have no knowledge that I had apologized and have been working at rebuilding a relationship. Or maybe they know but just don't care.

All I know is that for some of them this feud isn’t over.

I volunteer within my community for two reasons.
I like making a difference and it feels good.

I was a volunteer long before I became "Belt Drive Betty"

The two groups I work the hardest for are Toys for Tots and AIM-Can.
Why? Because my daughter was once a child who had a Christmas because of bikers and I have seen so many of my friends get injured or killed over 30 years of being around the riding community.

These two causes hold special meaning in my heart.
To me, when a rider is injured or a child is in need, there is no room for politics.

The rider who is fighting for their life doesn’t care how his or her wife/husband got to their bed side, just that he/she did.

The child who wasn’t so sure they would get a toy for Christmas doesn’t care who gave him/her that toy but that they got one.

I have made many, many mistakes in my lifetime. I have even learned from a few of them.

This is one mistake that I deeply regret. Why?

Because of my faux pas, the very things I believe in the most, community, charity and cooperation have been compromised in my own community.

Charities, wonderful, wonderful causes that deserve support are being denied that support because one very powerful man's riding club either won’t accept my apology and forgive me, they don't know that I did apologize and have been working to correct a wrong or they don't care.

What do you do when no matter what you do or say you can’t right a wrong? 

What do you do when your actions adversely affect the charitable causes you volunteer for?

What do you do when you are "Belt Drive Betty" and you find yourself in that position?

Do I step back and stop volunteering for the causes I believe in, the causes that have supported and sustained me and those I love in our times of need…

Do I stop paying it forward with my time and effort or do I just keep on being me and doing my part?

If I step back will 20 or 30 more step up?

If I step back will it make any difference?

All of our groups and charities are short of volunteers.
If the members of this other riding club would really step up if I bowed out, you bet I’d bow out. It's in the greater good of the community. I would simply sponsor the events of this community if it meant more volunteers would help out.

I am conflicted. I am uncertain and I really would appreciate some feed back and advice because I truly do not know what to do here.

If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

If you are fortunate enough to be riding today, please ride like everyone around you is blind and can't see you.

Belt Drive Betty
National VP - AIM-Can