The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Excessively vulgar, needlessly violent and socially tactless. Paul Garrett knows all about the negative stereotypes surrounding bikers. 'But stuff like this is what's changing that image,' he says, motioning toward the nearby Creighton Sportex. Inside the arena, dozens upon dozens of bikers just like him have gathered not to wreak havoc, but to enjoy a great time in support of a greater cause. The social, held last Saturday, capped off the 20th Annual Run to the Border, put on by the Garrett-led Flin Flon Motorcyclists Association, or FFMA. By the end of the night, which included a draw for a shiny new Harley-Davidson, the club expected to raise as much as $12,000 for the Children's Wish Foundation. It was just one of many good deeds performed by the FFMA since its inception two decades ago. 'Twenty years ago when we started, people said people couldn't do this, you couldn't go 20 years,' says Garrett. 'There are some people here who just decided we'd prove them wrong.' Garrett is one of them. He's a founding member of the FFMA, which has 20 members with one thing in common _ a preference for a two-wheeled mode of transportation. Achieve ambitions Formally established on Dec. 17, 1992, the club held its first meetings in a one-stall garage, not entirely certain how it would achieve its ambitions. From day one a key goal was to raise money for the sick kids of northern Manitoba whose families approach the Wish Foundation. 'We always say it's a catch-22,' says Garrett. 'It's nice to be there for the kids, but it's not a good thing. You don't want them (to have to use it), but it's still there for them.' As a result of those first months of meetings, the FFMA landed a motorcycle to raffle off as a fundraiser. Incredibly, within a week and a half, all of the tickets had been scooped up. It was decided the bike draw would take place at an entertainment-filled social, which itself would follow what was christened the Run to the Border. An afternoon poker run for bikers, the first Run to the Border was held in 1993 and attracted support from leather-clad participants from throughout the area and beyond. Such regional participation remained vital to this year's Run to the Border, which featured over 120 bikers, many from locales such as Thompson, The Pas and Prince Albert. As a special touch this year, the bikers rode past Pioneer Square last Saturday afternoon, accepting waves from those gathered for the Royal Weekend celebrations in honour of Queen Elizabeth II. The bike draw, social and Run to the Border may be the FFMA's signature events, but they do not wholly define the club. Members have been known to scout out other ways of helping their community. Not surprisingly, they also organize casual rides to other towns and cities, just for the fun of it. 'It's nice being out with everybody and socializing and going on rides,' says long-time member Richard Ruckle. Ruckle was at the first FFMA meeting in 1992. At one point he left the club but in time eagerly returned. 'It's like a big family,' he says. 'I mean, there's issues once in a while, just like a family, right?' Like Garrett, Ruckle believes _ or at least hopes _ that the FFMA's support of worthy causes is enhancing the image of bikers. 'I like to think it is,' says Ruckle. 'I mean, you've got good people and bad people in everything. Bikers are really no different. There's bad ones, but then you've got ones who come out every year and...help make money for us.' With his generous height, salt-and-pepper beard and leather ballcap, Garrett certainly has the look of the archetypal biker. Yet his ardent kindness, his genuine desire to help children and others in need, shine through, making him utterly unintimidating. Garrett still remembers the first child who received help from the Wish Foundation thanks to the FFMA's efforts. The boy was given a stereo. 'He couldn't believe how he was treated, how people from out of town treated him, how we treated him and just how we conducted ourselves,' Garrett says. Garrett recalls how the FFMA has been the genie to grant sick children other wishes, such as going to Disney World or taking in a hockey game. 'It makes us kind of feel good doing stuff like that,' he says. 'It's good for the kids and it's good for the community being able to do something like that.' Until this year, the FFMA split proceeds from its fundraising between the Wish Foundation and motorcycle awareness programs. This year, though, all of the cash is going to the Wish Foundation. That will raise the club's 20-year contribution to the charity to somewhere between $140,000 and $150,000. Expansion FFMA members are now talking about expanding beyond northern Manitoba and helping kids in northern Saskatchewan as well. This year's bike draw prize _ a 2012 Harley-Davidson Ultra Electra Glide valued at about $27,500 _ went to Nolan Saranchuk of Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan. Naturally, many of the draw tickets are sold to bikers. For them, Garrett says, the chance of winning a new bike is secondary to the opportunity to brighten the lives of children in need. Garrett looks forward to helping more children in the coming years _ almost as much as he welcomes continuing to defy the naysayers who thought the FFMA's long-term existence was a pipe dream. Says the club president: 'We'll go as long as we want to go.'
