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Sure, most of us give money to charities. We might sort food at the food bank, rake leaves for the elderly or do other random acts of goodness. There's nothing random, however, about what's happening at Happy Trails Products in Garden City.
Happy Trails is a company that makes motorcycle accessories. It is a magnet for bikers, but forget the stereotypes. When it comes to helping the needy, these guys put most of us to shame.
When I met them, they were working to get some motorcycles ready for a trip. Seven men were busy changing tires and sprockets, replacing worn bolts and bearings, making the bikes almost as good as new.
"But you don't want them to look new," Happy Trails owner Tim Bernard said. "If you go down there with a fancy, new-looking bike, everybody thinks you're a rich gringo."
"Down there" is Nicaragua, where the men are getting the bikes ready to go. When they get there, they'll be given to missionaries who work with the poor.
New, the motorcycles cost more than $5,000.
"They're Kawasaki KLR650s," Bernard said. "They're the Swiss Army Knife of motorcycles - dependable, economical and ideal for the roads down there. Some of the missionaries are in pretty remote places, and these bikes are good on both pavement and dirt."
Ken Hunter went on the first trip from Boise to Nicaragua a year ago. It took 19 days to make the 5,500-mile ride.
"The roads are narrow and there's no shoulders, but it wasn't bad," he said. "I've ridden 120,000 miles in five years, so 5,000 wasn't a big deal for me."
The ride, he said, is just the beginning.
"You get a real heart for the people when you're down there. You hear about what's happening in those places, but seeing it changes you.
"They have a Hope House for girls who were sold into prostitution at 8 or 10. I'll never forget a little girl I met there. To talk to her, she seemed like a typical 10-year-old kid. Then you think about what she's been through, and it breaks your heart."
Most of the men are members of the Christian Motorcyclists Association, which has been donating motorcycles to Third World churches for years.
"The difference," Bernard said, "is that they buy them in-country and might ride them 10 miles to donate them. Our emphasis is on the journey. That way, you build relationships along the way."
Like the time one of the men was riding to donate a bike in Nicaragua and had to stop and fly home because of a medical problem. He ended up giving the bike to a missionary in Durango, Mexico.
"We don't care what church they belong to," Bernard said. "One might be Baptist, the next Assembly of God and the one after that Presbyterian."
The journey doesn't end with donating the motorcycles. The men put on riding clinics - some of the missionaries who get the motorcycles have never ridden a bicycle - and teach motorcycle maintenance. When the motorcycle portion of the trip is over, they help with other things.
"We helped a father pay for surgery for his daughter," Bernard said. "We may build a house in Guatemala. We want to try to take a youth group down for that. Our next trip might be to put in a well or do a medical mission. We might feed babies or teach welding. The need is so great that you don't need to get hung up on what you do. All you need to do is show up."
Right. Just hop on a motorcycle and ride for 19 days. Then the real work begins. It makes the automatic payroll deduction for charitable contributions seem pretty painless, doesn't it?
That isn't the way the men look at it, though. The way they see it, they're the ones who benefit.
"It changes your life," Hunter said. "It softens your heart."
Remember, these are big, tough bikers.
"We stayed at a hospital where they refused to accept the money we offered them for the food we ate," Bernard said.
"This was money they desperately needed. I was crying for the next 30 miles just thinking about it.
"It makes a different person out of you. I used to be a redneck. Now I'm a bleeding-heart redneck."
Tim Woodward: 377-6409
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