A Roaring Success

Beacon's 1st annual Bike For Youth motorcycle rally came off without a hitch.  The day was sunny and warm and the bikers came out, tentatively at first, and then in better numbers.  We were competing with many other events in Brighton and the area, including a Kiwanis motorcycle rally through Prince Edward County and the memorial service for long-time pianist and piano teacher, loved by everybody, Lena Baker.  

Great amounts of thanks are needed for those who helped with the day.  Rick Hamilton organized much of the ride and his friends with the Blue Knights helped lead the various groups of riders through an excellent route.  Chuck and Joan Acker, with friends from Smithfield Congregational church, got the Bar B Q from Battlefield Rent All, bought the food and did the cooking. It was a long day for the Ackers, and they still had the beast to clean and return after the weekend was over.

Emily Rowley, Municipal Councillor for Brighton, helped with the setup and ticket sales in the am.  Eric Davis, who I still haven't met in person yet, was the T-shirt guru who came up with an excellent price for the shirts we sold.
My FM radio was on hand to cover the event and gave us free advertising all week.  John Campbell of the Brighton Independent got some great shots of the bikes leaving, and we were featured in the front page of the Independent the next week.
Sean and Dixon and Karlie were on hand all day, but Sean was the only one who actually got onto the ride, as passenger to Rick.  Sean and Larry spent much of the morning sweeping a winter's worth of sand and grit from the parking lot.
Chasing Elephants put on a great musical performance that impressed everybody. Long time rock & roll or C & W aficionados stopped what they were doing to listen to these musical prodigies do their harmonic thing. Great talent there & I will be asking them to perform for our fall musical fundraiser.
The prize draw went very well also.  An 'experienced' biker, Daniel, when he was ready to leave, gave his ticket to the youngest rider, Candace Harnden, sitting next to him. Candace was passenger with her grandfather Don.  Just as Daniel was roaring off, Candace won the Oxford Bone Dry bike jacket which had been offered with other items by Trenton Motosports. Way to go Candace. Way to go Daniel.  Daniel, earlier in the day,stared long and hard at our youth centre, read all the notices, calendar of events and messages, nodding and smiling.  I think he had a Beacon in his past, or perhaps had needed one.
Most of our regular volunteers, Carla, Frances, Susan, Don, and Elisabeth were on hand to help with all the work.  Ashoor and Athar also showed up as well and were helpful in clean up and post rally billiard challenges...
A great day was had by all.

My only problem was that I remembered to start taking photos only when most of the people had left, hence the underpopulated shot above.