Bikers raise funds to fight against cancer, help other causes

By Beth Emley

It would be easy to join a motorcycle riding group just to ride, or just to give money to a charity without really doing anything.

Not so for the Conesus Lake Riders, who have been together since 1949 and also have a long history of charity work.

Since many of their members have been touched by cancer, they decided to make cancer one of their main fundraising focuses.

Dick Rider, 60, of Dansville, the group’s past president and a member for about 15 years, said the group was especially inspired to take on the cancer cause after it lost two members to the disease, Gene Barber and Red Acker.

In 2001, they started looking at options and then decided to help Camp Good Days and Special Times of Mendon, which runs a camp for children with cancer.

Rider said the group has been impressed by the camp’s mission and its founder, Gary Mervis, whose daughter, Teddi, died from cancer. Mervis founded the camp 30 years ago.

He said since its inception, Camp Good Days has brought over 47,000 kids to camp. “They run the whole organization through donations and fundraisers,” he said. He also notes that the camp is operated mostly by volunteers, which cuts down on administrative costs.

This year, the Riders recently held their “Ridin’ for a Reason” to help Camp Good Days and raised over $4,000.

The groups’ members like to get out and meet the kids at camp. They go there and eat dinner with them several times a summer. The kids also get a chance to sit on their motorcycles.

“It’s real personal, what we do,” Rider said. “It’s to broaden our understanding of what the camp is.”

“It’s a great place and a wonderful event. The kids get the chance to just be kids. It does us good to have dinner with them.”

Besides its work for Camp Good Days, the group has also become involved with raising funds for the Wilmot Cancer Center and recently for Teresa House in Geneseo, a hospice house. A dice run for Teresa House is coming up on Sept. 19.

“Whether or not you think you need hospice, it will touch your life eventually,” Rider said.

Other projects the group has participated in have included a Christmas Children’s Fund in Dansville. Last year, they helped 18 families by providing complete Christmas dinners for them.

“There’s probably 18 different organizations or needs we donate to,” Rider said. “The Christmas fund made us feel as good as the families. I heard some pretty sad stories.”

When Rider thinks of his volunteer work and helping others, he said he feels very positive about it.

“It makes life more peaceful,” he said. “If you can make a kid smile, you feel wonderful. When you work on those charity events, most of our club members feel the same way.”

HOG reaps rewards — The Rochester HOG has also played an active role in giving back to the community over the past few years. Rochester HOG is a licensed and chartered chapter of the national HOG and is sponsored by Harley Davidson of Rochester.

Rochester HOG raises money annually for several causes, including the Mary Cariola Children’s Center. They have also participated in the Cycle Stop of

Henrietta’s annual breast cancer benefit run to raise breast cancer awareness and raised money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Their biggest fundraiser for the past four years has been a motorcycle dice run for Mary Cariola Children’s Center in Rochester.

Mike Ryan, 59, of Rochester, the group’s director, said Rochester HOG raised over $10,000 last year for Mary Cariola through private donations and corporate sponsorship.

This year’s recent run, called HOGS ‘n Roses, began at the Cycle Stop in Henrietta and ended at the Creekside Inn in Rush.

“The community is very generous. People love to do this,” Ryan said. “It’s wonderful. You get more than you receive, they say. It’s a big undertaking and we love doing it.”

Ryan said the group decided to raise money for Mary Cariola after an employee at the Cycle Stop encouraged the group to participate in a charity ride.

“The motorcycle community is extremely generous and it just seemed like a natural fit for us,” he said.

Mary Cariola serves children with multiple complex disabilities that the public and private schools aren’t able to accommodate.

“MCC doesn’t turn away any child. They take kids that mainstream schools don’t take and do whatever it takes it provide care and education necessary. The exposure to that touched me deeply. This is a charity that is worthwhile and the response has been overwhelming,” he said.

Ryan said it’s “hard to define” on a personal level how working with charities makes him feel.

However, on a daily basis, “I’m reminded of how lucky I am and how fortunate I am. It’s good to give back to people who are less fortunate. If you spend five minutes at the Mary Cariola Children Center you can see the love and perseverance the staff has for the children,” Ryan said

“Having done this, I couldn’t not do it again,” he said. “I feel a pretty strong commitment. I get back more than I give and it’s nice to be needed.”
Ryan, who has been a member of HOG since 2004, said the local chapter has been around for about 25 years. Many of its members are “60-ish baby boomers,” he said. He said many members realize how lucky they are so “how can you not do something?” for others, he asked.

Vets reach out to their own —The Rochester chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America is like other chapters across the country—it raises money to help veterans and helps them with other issues such as benefits and healthcare.

The Rochester chapter also happens to have a number of members who are bikers and besides raising money for veterans’ causes, they also do their part to help local charities by holding various events throughout the year.

Ken Moore, 68, of Hilton is president of Chapter 20 that has existed in Rochester for 30 years. Each year, the group has an annual bike run and last year, the proceeds went to the Wilmot Cancer Center.

“A lot of our members are suffering from the effects of cancer,” Moore said. Last year’s bike run raised $30,000 for the organization.

This year, the group will concentrate it efforts on raising money for veterans.

The recent event saw participants “Ride to the Dakota Grill” in Hilton. The annual poker run often draws more than 1,000 riders.

Moore, a disabled veteran himself, said he hopes the run will bring awareness to all veterans and their health issues.

He said the money raised will help the group “keep doing what it does. God only knows, the government doesn’t give us anything.”

He added: “Never again should a generation forget another. We give a lot of thought to what’s going on, such as what do vets need and how can we support them. We think about not only the veteran, but his or her family members. We have done a lot with breast cancer because our wives have suffered the effects.”

Since coming back from the Vietnam War in 1967, Moore has worked for Kodak and Monroe County. But he said he has made serving others a mission.
Moore said he has a “passion” to want to help others and says he gets a lot of personal satisfaction from the work he does.
Moore said he would like to see the day come where veterans who are injured in some way can be compensated “rather than argue with the federal government.”

Vets Helping Vets

Monroe County Veterans Court valuable resource for troubled soldiers

By Beth Emley

Ken Moore, a biker from Hilton and a disabled veteran, does more for veterans than just serve as the president of the local Vietnam Veterans of America.
He’s also a volunteer mentor for the Monroe County Veterans Court. He helps veterans who have been charged with non-violent felonies and their families get through the court system.

“Sometimes they celebrate and end up with a DWI and need helping dealing with their goblins. That’s what we do up there,” Moore said.

The court meets every Monday. Patricia Marks, Supreme Court, 7th District, is the judge.

Moore said the veterans’ offenses include charges such as possession of narcotics or domestic violence. The goal is to get them into counseling or treatment and follow them through the system.

Moore is among 15 men from the Vietnam Veterans of America chapter who are helping mentor veterans.

He said the court has seen a total of some 170 defendants, some of whom as suffering illnesses from war such as post-traumatic stress disorder. On a typical Monday, it will be 10 mentors with 20 to 40 defendants in court, he said.

The veterans court works to help get certain charges reduced so the veterans can get on with their lives, Moore said. Some of the veterans don’t need to be in county jail,” he said.

The veterans also help their families with other needs such as paying gas or electric bills and in some cases, providing necessities such as bus passes and phone cards. The money to buy those items is all raised by veterans’ groups.

Recently, there was a veterans court graduation ceremony at the county court building, Moore said. He said 22 veterans were scheduled to graduate that day.

Moore said the program has a 70 to 75 percent success rate.

“They may start out in a bad position but then when we see them four to six months later, they thank the judge for saving their life. It’s incredible the ones who make it,” he said.

Moore said there are some veterans who graduate from the program who want to be mentors.

He said those people have told him: “’I want to do what you’re doing, I want to give back.’ What better example can you have than that?”
Many of the defendants are people in their 20s while many of the mentors are men in their 60s. Moore said some have wondered how they would relate to the younger people.

“What we found out over a year and a half ago is for some crazy reason, they look up to us. The age thing doesn’t really matter. It’s just a couple of vets talking about their problems,” he said.

Helping Cancer Causes

By Beth Emley

As a member of the Conesus Lake Riders, Mike Backus helps raise money for Camp Good Days and Special Times. But the 56-year-old Dansville man has a deeper connection to the cancer cause than most.

His son, Adam, 25, also a member of the motorcycle group, died last August after a year and a half battle with colon cancer.

“We’re still coping with the overall loss,” Backus said.

But he has fond memories of his son and his involvement with the motorcycle group and Camp Good Days.

He said Adam was diagnosed with cancer while he was in the Air Force. He had been working as a jet engine mechanic at a military base in Anchorage, Alaska and was deployed for six months to Iraq where he served as a security policeman.

After the diagnosis, he returned to the Rochester area for cancer treatments. He received those treatments at the Wilmot Cancer Center at Strong. Backus said his son still attended meetings of the Riders and last year, he helped buy doo rag bandanas to hand out to the kids at Camp Good Days.

“Once he came back (to the Rochester area), the group knew (about his cancer diagnosis) and voted him in as a life member as a gesture to him doing what he was doing,” Backus said.

Adam was in remission and was scheduled to go to another work assignment in Oklahoma early last year when his cancer reoccurred.

He was an avid sports fan and wanted to do several things before he died, Backus said.

He did make it to a Red Sox game but wasn’t able to go to a Pro Football Hall of Fame game with former Buffalo Bill Bruce Smith.

His illness had worsened so he watched it on TV instead, his father recalled.

Sooner than the family had expected, “he passed away an hour after the (football) game,” Backus said.

Backus said Adam is deeply missed. But having a Backus grandson, Christian Adam Joseph, carry his son’s middle name is a fitting tribute to the former Air Force mechanic and Conesus Lake Rider.

More Baby Boomers joining motorcycle clubs —

for fun and to help various causes

The Baby Boomer generation is revving up the sport of motorcycling. Whether they call it a sport or a hobby, all biking enthusiasts would call motorcycling fun.

Often referred to as Baby Boomer Bikers, they are the fastest-growing segment of America’s 6 million-member motorcycling population, and their numbers are increasing 10 percent a year, according to an article which appeared recently on Time.com.

This increase is due in part to the fact that the Baby Boomers make up such a large segment of the overall population, and many in that age group have the financial means now to afford a motorcycle.

Many of them are returning to the sport after years spent raising families and building their careers. They might have ridden when they were younger, but got married and traded their motorcycles for sedans.