Ontario Chapter 18 of the Red Knights motorcycle club recently donated $300 to St. Mary’s Hospital in Kitchener following their annual “fall colours ride” up to Haliburton and the Algonquin Park area in September. Club president Bob Brown and past-president John Scheeringa presented the cheque to the hospital on Nov. 4.
“We do several rides in a year, that’s just one of them,” said Brown. “They’re mainly to go out with fellow firefighters; the fall colours ride was to see the leaves.”
This was the second year for their ride up to Haliburton, and the first where they raised funds for charity. Brown said that several members of the club had to use the services at St. Mary’s in the past year, so they wanted to help give back.
They gathered donations from several local businesses and held a raffle during their ride weekend from Sept. 17-19. The club also met up with several other Red Knight members from across Ontario.
The money will go towards the purchase of a new ultrasound machine in the cardiac department of St. Mary’s.
Brown, 49, has been riding a motorcycle since he was 16, and has been a resident of Elmira for his entire life. He has also been a volunteer at the Elmira fire station since about 1990. He said riding in a car is nothing compared to riding on the open road with a big group of motorcyclists.
“It’s a nice way to see the country; it’s different than being in a car. You get to experience things that you wouldn’t normally experience in a car, like the smells and the temperature and everything. Just being with a bunch of people, it makes it more interesting too.”
The club consists of about 30 members spread out across Elmira, Ayr, Alma, Beechville and Kitchener, among others, and is a part of the larger international organization of the Red Knights, a motorcycle club for firefighters to get together with their motorcycles. It includes about 300 chapters worldwide and some 9,000 members.
