Chapter Report District 1- Chapter 1-Erie

Howdy Y’all!

Couldn’t make last month’s meeting, and everyone else musta had writer’s block, I guess. This being summer, there is a whopping butt-load of happenings, most of which make for pleasant remembering when the winter winds are a-howling.

First, from Milt Hunt (who solicitously agreed to run for Chapter President again, but don’t even tell his wife!): Nancy is running the Flowers and Cards for chapter members and their families in times of sickness, injury and death. Call her at 587-6387. THANKS NANCY!!!

Our chapter extends its condolences to Bob Grant on the loss of his father.

Hey, how good it was to see Rick Adams, our District Rep, make the August meeting, only one short month after crashing his bike to avoid smashing into a dumb turd-ball crossing the road on a riding mower, toting a little kid with him, at that – how many stupid people can this planet handle?! They say youth heals quickly, and Rick is a shining example of that. Rick claims that his brain didn’t get too damaged, but his wife Jennie just rolled her eyes. Keep watching "Jeopardy", amigo, and stay away from country music – that stuff’ll turn yer brain into a melted Popsicle quicker than anything!

Speaking of accidents, Channel 12 News interviewed me about the plethora of motorcyclist injuries and fatalities happening this year. In nearly all the occurrences I’ve heard about, it’s usually John Q Public not having his head where it should be, focused on the road. When I think of brand-new teenage drivers, busily checking and sending text messages, it boggles my mind. Why not twiddle a dang Etch-A-Sketch while you’re tooling down the highway??? The other fatalities include the Harborcreek guy who bought a bike on Thursday, and crashed and died, along with his wife, on Friday. That really tears at the heart, and emphasizes how valuable Rider Education courses are. Another biker in Crawford County died after smashing into a runaway Amish buggy horse – holy heck!

Later that week, Channel 12 also interviewed member Steve Weston, who set up the Injured Motorcycle Riders Foundation, designed to help motorcyclists injured in bike accidents. Steve says he’s visited 23 injured riders in hospitals so far this year, and that is a sobering number. Between skyrocketing gas prices and the coolness factor of bikers delivered to the public by the sensationalism-seeking media, a lot of people are buying a lot of bikes. I think it takes years of riding to develop a sense of controlled paranoia, of anticipating that folks are gonna pull out in front of you, and the trick is to not crash and burn before that survival instinct gets honed. The Poker Run Wrap-Up: We sold dang near all the raffle tickets, and that’s a very good thing. Final numbers aren’t tallied yet, but it looks like around 360 folks attended. This included folks from other chapters and non-ABATE members. With around 600 members, it’s a mystery why more members didn’t attend – maybe they were wiped out by the Roar on the Shore events the previous week…And the winners are: 1rst Prize (the FLHT): Brian Heberle. He’s also a long-time ABATE member, so that’s cool! Note: The winning ticket seller gets $100, and Brian, having sold the ticket to himself, graciously donated the C-note back to the chapter. Very cool, Brian! 2^{nd Prize (the XLH Sportster): Eric Williams; 3rd Prize H-D Jacket: Brian Nicholl;. Cash prize winners: Leanne Caryl, Stanley Yeast, Aaron Kulich, Mike Shreckengost, Mike Brennen, Gary Marowski, and Dan Bishop (whose fine establishment, 21 Hampton, is also a Gold Card sponsor!)Great big "THANK YOU’s" go out to Erie Beer for their donation of $350; also to Norm Thompson for setting up the bike games (I’ll never look at a toilet bowl plunger the same way again - whew!); to Grumpy and Chris for endless hours , and to  Kathy and The Crosleys  who put their time in at the gate and the Products tent; to my beautiful wife Ann for cleaning up the dance floor and surrounding grounds; to Nancy Hunt for allowing Uncle Miltie and me the privilege of push-starting your Yo-Sun bike early Sunday morning, helping to drive the demon alcohol out of my bloodstream; and of course, to Astro for doing a magna-fantabulous job of getting it all together. Ya didn’t mess up too bad!!! I musta fell asleep before the wet T-shirt contest, though…}

Hey, we have leftover Poker Run t-shirts that need to be sold. Get ‘em for the amazing low price of $12, or we lose money. Speaking of Products: our very fine Products Officer, Julie Walker, has resigned. Julie, you are a wonderful part of what has made our chapter so great. Whiny ex-members sending out malicious e-mails are like a cancer in any organization. I doubt that there’s anything worse than negativity-spewing people who like to bitch without offering a solution, let alone offering to help out. Rick Adams put it succinctly when he said, "Step up or shut up", and that’s all I got to say about that!

The Make-A-Wish Bike Show organizers sent us a Thank-You letter for helping sponsor it and helping with parking. They made about $24,000!The Roar on the Shore was pretty cool. Peter Fonda was a no-show, but it still roared. A bunch of us helped park the horde of about 4000 bikers in the blistering heat at the casino. What an infinite variety of bikes and bikers, truly a cross-representational slice of America that rolled in. Downtown Erie was hopping, and our ABATE booth was kept busy. Thanks to everyone who worked at the casino and at the booth! NEW MEMBERS: Al and Berlinda Clark, Al Williams, Mark Conrue, John and Coleen Lawson, Ed and Kim Forget, and last but not least, the illustrious John Hannah, who finally done got himself a dang Harley. Welcome to our chapter, folks !!!

Nominations for Officers for the Upcoming Year are now happening. You need to be at the meeting to accept the nomination, so come to the meetings, eh? We need people in office, people. Don’t worry that you might think you’re not qualified – just look at President Bush and the fine job he’s done for our great country! By the time he’s outta office, we’ll all be pushing our bikes, freezing in our homes, and eating Dad’s Economy Dogfood (made in China, of course).Cosmic Karmic Coincidence: Gayle Clark graciously filled in as Secretary for our August meeting, and then she won the 50-50. The Great Raven works in mysterious ways!

Upcoming Happenings:September 6: The 6th Annual Mike Schermer Cancer Fundraiser. 2 – 8 at Franklin Fire Hall on Route 98.

October 15th: Highway Cleanup. If you’re feeling guilty about your carbon footprint, this is your chance to wipe your feet!

If you want to add anything, call 774-4832 or e-mail at rdunlap@phcse.org. Nobody has yet, though, so you can be the first!