By Canadian Legion of Riders

Canadian Legion of Riders – A Year in Review

Feb 8, 2016 | 8:12 AM

Our year started off with our annual Fish Fry at the Legion in February with a sellout crowd enjoying the efforts of our cooking, renewing memberships, purchasing merchandise and trying their luck at 50/50’s.

The next few months we were all busy with taking the Johnny Pag bike which was donated back to our Group from Brenda Manners a week after winning it.

We had the bike repainted white with military silhouettes, the Canadian flag, and the rear fender showing the tombstone of the last unmarked grave. The theme was well received everywhere we showed the bike. We again hauled it down to Moose Jaw for the Swap Meet they put on.

We had it in Lloydminster for a weekend in the mall, and to Cyclemania in Saskatoon and also to the Agri Mex event here In North Battleford, Battlefords Ladies lions garage sale, and the Battlefords Vintage Car Clubs Show & Shine.

As well as having tickets available at Northern Auto or from any of the executive or dedicated members that took books for promoting ticket sales in support of our raffle.

Rustlers Volleyball

Crusaders' Bell excited for next chapter with Lakeland College

9h ago

Nothing but Net

Vikings' standouts ready for national stage with Team Saskatchewan

11h ago

Missing person

Spiritwood RCMP searching for missing woman

14h ago

We had 20 or more bikes turn out for Kate MacEachern’s, The Long Way Home on May 11th to escort Kate to the Legion. The bikes paraded her the last two blocks of her walk and then formed an Honor guard in front of the Legion for everyone to pass by before going inside.  Kate received donations from us and local businesses for raising funds for PTSD awareness. We donated $500.00 for the Wounded Warriors Weekend.

Throughout the riding months the web site showed different riding events that members sent in and participated in to the web master to post.  These included the Christian Motorcycle Association Ride in May, the Knights of Columbus Ride for Life in June, The Run to the Hills event in July, and The MS Ride in Lloydminster in August are just to name some of the great rides that we are proud to show support for.

The Ride for a Vet in July was again a huge success with a record number of 236 riders enjoying the ride and showing up to support. There were tons of items donated by over 30 businesses to our organization for prizes for the riders, who also enjoyed a great supper and Show and Shine awards including The Annual Tom Kryzanowski Memorial Award which was Won by Kevin Jones for outstanding dedication or service to the Ride for a Vet.

We would like to thank RCL Br.70 for providing the pancake breakfast and rally registration. The night saw a great dance put on with entertainment by Barons of Buckingham and One Bad Son rocking our event back out in the open air under the tent. One Bad Son had the crowd going and didn’t want to stop for the draw, they kept playing until just after 1:00 Am The draw followed for the motorcycle and the mini electric pocket bike. With a light rain starting the event quickly ended.
 
September 12th we had The Alberta Vintage Flat Track Association show up the Flat Track Racing Exhibition. We were in  partnership with the AG Society for this event.  We had 19 riders come out for Saturday Exhibition which had multiple heats in many different classes. During the first intermission almost everyone watching came down to the pits to talk with the riders and see their bikes close up. The day ended with Trophy presentations and the riders commenting on what a great day they had racing on our track with wanting to come back again next year and what a well-organized event it was .

As the riding season has ended we again put on our Annual Halloween Dance at the Legion’s Sloan room. This year the jazz society players were busy so we had a local band Beer League open the dance with the Barons of Buckingham playing the night out for everyone who dressed up, attended the dance, and enjoyed the evening.

The year ended off with 2016 lottery sales of another Johnny Pag bike at the Co-Op mall in the week before Christmas with both first and second place bikes on display.

Donations we made in the year:

• $500.00 to the Wounded Warriors when Kate came through town on her journey for the Long Way Home.
• $8,250.00 to North Battleford Branch 70 towards Renovating their Kitchen. 
• $2,500.00 to Battleford Branch 9 for the new branch sign. Also to Branch 9 was $2,225 for the unmarked graves in their cemetery.  
• $638.00 to Prince Albert Legion to repair their sign.
• #1,000 to the Wounded Warriors Weekend Event held in North Battleford.
• $2,000.00 to the War vets PTSD Canine project. 
• $1,000.00 each to the Army Cadets and the Air Cadets.
• $200 worth of toys to the Lloydminster Toy Run.
• and our final donations were to the Meota Lions Club $1,792.00 and the Roller Derby Girls of North Battleford $500.00.

That brings our total donations for 2015 to $20,605.00.

Thank You!!!        

A special thank you to all our Members, local businesses, organizations and supporters from the Battlefords, Saskatoon, Lloydminster, Meadow Lake and surrounding areas. We would also like to thank the RCL Br.70 executive for the great relationship we have with them.  

Hope to see you all in 2016.