March 16^th-18^{th, 2012}

Project New Hope, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Statewide Head Injury Program (SHIP), is sponsoring a retreat for Veterans who have experienced a traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is considered the “signature” injury of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and is most often related to exposure to IED blasts. Veterans who may have sustained a TBI from other causes (e.g., motor vehicle accidents, falls, and military sexual trauma) are also invited to participate in this retreat program, which will include: Register at www.Projectnewhopema.org

FUNDRAISER:

Psychic, Medium Bro. Gary McKinstry Benefit for Project New Hope Inc
Date: March 4, 2012
Social Hour 12:00-1:00
Show 1:00-3:00
Buffet 4:00
Raffles
Viva Bene 144 Commercial St Worcester, Ma.
Call Pat for tickets (508) 853-8196
Donations $30.00
Tickets can be purchased in advance by sending a check or money order made out to: Project New Hope Inc – PO Box 91 – Leicester, MA 01524

This will be a fun day for all friends and family wishing to come support a great thing. Daily Bread is a non profit organization that works hard on helping out with extra meals for those in need. Going to have music, raffles, face painting and games for the kids! So please come out to support or Local Patriot Riders Chapter 3 in helping raise some money for a great organization! 

General entrance cost is only $5.00 per person and entrance allows you to vote for the best Chili. Children under 5 are free. We will have 100 tickets for sale for the general admission!

Call 978-894-3387 for information.

The North Central Chapter 907 of the Vietnam Veterans Of America would like to say thank you to everyone along the route that were waving flags and clapping from Gardner to Rindge and from Rindge to Ashburnham and back to Gardner. You have no idea how much we welcome your support each and every year.To all our Members, Friends and Sponsors who helped with our 7th Annual Memorial Ride and Chicken BBQ at the Gardner Fish and Gun Club, it was one of the best events that we have had in the history of this event to date. Someone said there were 390 bikes and another said we had over 600. Whatever the true count was we may never know for sure, but all had a good time and we raised money for a good cause — our veterans.

This was the first year that The Committee added hot rods and classic cars to the ride and we did not know what to expect, but we are hopeful more will join us next year.

The event kicked off with “The Sound Guy” playing Reveille to the crowd at 9:50 a.m. The excitement had already started to build for a lot of us. Chapter President Norm Webb welcomed the crowd, and the opening ceremony began. The Gardner American Legion Post 129 Honor Guard barked out orders to post the colors. The Branch of Service songs were played. And when Veterans heard their Branch of Service, they snapped to attention and saluted the flag. Guns were fired in traditional style and taps was played in remembrance of our fallen comrades. Our National Anthem was done just right and the ride got underway at 10:10 a.m.

There was some confusion at the beginning of the ride and it seemed broken until we got to Route 140. Hopefully, we can prevent this from happening next year.

We arrived at The Cathedral about 11:15 a.m. The Service started at 11:30 a.m. I was informed that the 30 minutes service at The Cathedral of the Pines was beautiful. Heidi Jo Hanson was the opening act at noon and the Chicken BBQ was opened to the general public, if they were lucky enough to get a ticket. The Cathedral Of The Pines service came to a close as the ride headed back to the Gardner Fish and Gun to join in on the festivities already underway, as Heidi Jo Hanson took the stage and got the show started with her charm and popular foot stomping tunes that brought back a lot of memories for a lot us.

At 1 p.m., the ride arrived back at the Club to the sounds of the famous Wylie and The Boogiemen as they took to the stage as our headliner playing some of the best blues music around the area.

Somewhere towards the middle of the afternoon both Wylie and Heidi got together and mixed it up for a great closing act. It was a very nice, with a nice mix of blues, country and rock to round it off.

At around 3 p.m., we started to draw door prizes and “Last Call “ on all Raffles. The 50/50 Raffle topped of at $1,000. There were also lots of other raffles including a four pack of Red Sox tickets and a Vietnam auction (not Chinese). T-shirts and vendors were plenty with profit and non-profit groups alike showing their goods.

The chicken dinner was second to none and the staff at The Club did that right too. It was great to see new and old faces alike and, yes, we did pray for the rain to stay away.

Next year we are looking into staffing a group or organization to control intersections along the route, so that people will not be able to get through until the entire ride has gone past. To the people that broke into our ride and cut off bikers, they showed complete disrespect for our veterans as they broke into the formation of the ride. I, along with a lot of others, felt it was disrespectful and they should be ashamed.

Plans next year will be to keep the ride at a snails pace when departing the club until we reach the top of Monument Park. We will then wait one minute there until the ride is completely together and then proceed with everyone as we head for the service at the Cathedral. It can only get better each year as we strive to make this event one of the best in the area.

Thank you to everyone that helped make this year’s Ride a huge success for all veterans. Please visit or website to see our sponsors who supported us and for new photos and videos of the entire event. See you next year on May 29 for our 8th Annual Memorial Ride & Chicken BBQ.

Norm Webb, President
North Central Chapter 907
Vietnam Veterans of America, Gardner