November 20, 2006

In October of this year we finally closed out our relief effort . All in all we helped fourteen families who would not have otherwise received help or help would have been too slow in coming to make a difference in their quality of lives. To see how happy it made these fourteen families made all of us at Abate Of Louisiana proud to have been a part of this endeavor.

In the beginning of this effort we realized this was something no other SMRO had ever attempted and we were not sure that we wanted to attempt it. However once we realized the magnitude and scope of the devastation as well as the usual governments lack of response to some of the most needy made us realize that this is something we needed to do.

The motorcycling community from across the United States responded immediately and generously to our request for help and we are very proud of that fact as well they need to be too. If it wasn't for the unselfish generosity of this countries motorcycling community this would have never been successful and we are forever grateful to them. To see a list of all the Organizations and individuals who made contributions to this fund click here. We tip our helmets to them and hope that one day we can return their generosity.

Ride Safe, Ride Free

Poet

Recently we lost a very good member of the GNO/RP Chapter, Larry “Crazy Larry” Nance. Grant Miller, President of the Chapter called me and discussed having a memorial for him. When it came to the question of where it should be held there was a long silence. Then it hit me, we had a park named after the founder of our Organization, Pop’s Stroman Memorial Park. It was the perfect place to honor a member of ours who had died. With that thought in mind I volunteered to check the park out to see what condition it was in.

What I found was a park that was all but forgotten by members of this Organization even though it was we who fought for legislation to get it named after our beloved and departed founder and later on worked even harder to get a small monument with a plaque containing an inscription on it as a tribute to our founder and our Organization. The park itself was in fair shape. The monument was in excellent shape, but the few picnic tables there were in a state of dilapidation, fresh grass clippings were abundantly thick indicating that it had gotten quite tall before the LaDOTD bothered to expend the effort to cut it, and the trash cans that were available were nothing more than cheap plastic drums but were available.

Memories flooded back to me reminding me of Magnolia School Toy Runs that used the park as a starting point, One especially where I brought Mr. Larry Hagman there to experience one such Toy Run in 1996 while he was in town filming his then new series “Orleans”.

So many good memories, so many good times, but also so long ago. As I surveyed the park I though about these things and wondered why we moved on from this place after all the things we did to make it ours and all the good times we had there.

Right then I made up my mind that all that was going to change, and when I set my mind to something I don’t give up.We are going to take back our park and make it better and make it a beacon to all motorcyclists in this State. We are going to address this at the next State Board meeting on the 23rd of September.

I have already been in communication with different entities that can be of the utmost assistance in getting this endeavor accomplished as well as communicating with different members of this Organization to get ideas on how this should be accomplished and what it should entail.

The vision so far includes a pavilion and memorial walls for fallen motorcyclists to bring our plight to the forefront. When people from all walks of life stop in this park and see these names on these walls it will make it more personal to them. It will be a wake up call like no other, and even though I’ve heard there is another such project in another State I can guarantee you that if we do this right it will be the only one of its kind in the country.

On to other issues. Representative M.J. “Mert” Smiley contacted me on the 21st of August to enquire as to what legislation we may want to seek in 2007. He stated to me that he is going to set up a round table discussion between the LHSC, MAC, Abate, and maybe a few other Organizations before the end of September to discuss this. Ed Harris, our Legislative Coordinator has agreed to be there with me to address this. And lastly, I want to congratulate the GNO/RP for a fine meeting on August 19th and a great memorial to a fallen Bro.

Ride Safe Ride Free 

Poet

Copyright 2007 A.B.A.T.E. Of Louisiana, Inc.