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| Lorri Berson with Carter (her guide dog) calling out the raffle winners |
Every dog has a calling. However, every dog does not have the
opportunity to live their calling out. All you need to do is watch daytime or
late night TV once in a while and you’ll see poor abused beasts being paraded
across your screen as the SPCA guilts us into donations or adoptions. The dogs
that puppy farms churn out have a calling beyond the profit these factories
reap. While we can point to the obvious dog careers such as K-9 Police Units,
bomb, drug-sniffing dogs, and guard dogs there are callings
so mundane as to escape notice but as important to their hooman friends as the
search and rescue dogs. I’ve seen the working-dogs at their trade and they are
amazing to watch.
I’ve seen family pets work their magic on little kids, lonely
shut-ins, and folks with broken hearts. While I can’t tell you what each dog is
called to, I can tell you dogs are never called to the pits or viciousness.
Sub-humans train them that way. I’ll tell you this – our little labradoodle
fills a part of his promise with each costume placed on him and during every
mile he walks with us. He’s our friend and a noble one at that.
We are like dogs in this, every one of us has a calling. Maybe
more than one and often times we are called from purpose to purpose. I pray that
each of us finds our calling and have the great blessing to pursue it, or them.
This past Sunday our group of Victory riders, listed below,
and over 400 of our closest riding buddies got together for a Poker Run to
raise cash for some of the most noble of dogs – Guide Dogs for the blind. The
poker run started out at an amazing facility in Sylmar, California, Guide Dogs
of America (GDA). We were greeted by dogs ready for partners, or dogs in
training, and a volunteer staff eager for us to experience a touch of these
dogs’ calling.
After picking up our first card we set out for stop #1 at a
service station on Angeles Crest Highway just off of the 210 Freeway. Yes,
there were more dogs there and at each stop on the run. And yes, we overran the
station and the folks just trying to gas up for a Sunday. On a normal Sunday
afternoon the station is the meet point for hundreds of bikes and groups
heading up into the Angeles National Forest for a Sunday putt or in the case of
the vast number of sport bikers, to challenge the hell out of the twisties
(every weekend one or two are carted down in ambulances or medevacked out to
area hospitals). We added an extra 440 registered riders over about a two hour
period of time to flow of the station and it was a bit chaotic.
Singles and groups of between two and twenty wove their way
over the Angeles Crest Highway to head down the Angeles Forest Highway to the
next stop in the run at the 49er Saloon in Acton where were we picked up our
third card and overran the restrooms of the very cool bar. I’ll head back for
lunch sometime. Oh, with my third card I was effectively out of the running for
best hand (5 Jacks with 3rd best) even though I later chipped in for
two draw cards for an unsalvageable hand. Hey! It’s for the dogs.
We were then off to the VFW Post in Canyon Country for my
favorite adventure of the day, parking on a dirt lot. It makes me shiver just
to think of the notion of me on my Cross Country dirt riding. It was there we
took our group photo. We were able to get most of the core group in but missed
Greg Brown as he was busing doing what Greg does when around canines; speaking
their language and giving them love and respect. Notable occurrences of the day
included Jeanie’s first group ride on her new Can-am and Larry Novak joining
the usual suspects for the day. Cheers!
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| One of our favorites of the day - photo by Greg Brown, a lover of dogs and other humans |
The poker run ended where it began at the GDA facility where
we had burgers and hotdogs and plunked down some cash for raffle prizes. Tim
and Bev had tickets pulled twice, it was their day. Lorri Berson, the event
planner, told us a bit of her own story and how her canine guide changed her
life. Her mom accented the talk with effusive praise and thanks to GDA. These
two rocked the house of hardened bikers and riders of every description. Lorri
is an amazing woman with a self-effacing sense of humor guaranteed to put any
sighted person at ease.
I’ll end on this note, thank you to Tim and Bev for organizing
our day of fun and of riding for a meaningful cause. Thanks Jed for taking the
lead. Thank you to Lorrie for her great planning and welcoming demeanor as
hostess while sharing with us how she sees things. And, special thanks for the
dozens of volunteers for the event and their continued support for this vital
service to the blind.
Y’all keep the iron side up and ride with cause.
Jerry ‘Shakespeare’
White
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| The parking lot at GDA a beautiful facility |
Cast of
Characters for the ride:
Tim
Robertson on the Enterprise with a new seat, resplendent
Bev Hope
on her Vegas
Kevin
Shaw – Vision
Jeanie Fimbres
on her new Can-am
Karen
Drake on her Can-am
Keith
Drake on his Harley
Gregg
Brown on his Cross Country
Aaron
Falls and Lupe Delgado Falls and their Vision
Jed
Bourquin on his Vision
Sue
Bourquin on her Cross Country
Larry
Novak on his Vision – thanks for joining us Larry, your riding fit right in
Todd Skaggs
on his Vision
Me on my
Cross Country
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| Our group sans Greg, photo by a strange on Bev's phone From left: Karen and Keith, Bev and Tim, Larry, Jed and Sue, Jerry, Jeanie and Kevin |
