BELLA'S POKER RUN

Ok, by now, those of you that actually know me, knows that when I'm not posting something at least every week or so, then I'm really busy. Well that was the case these past couple of months. Myself and a group of people got very involved with the plight of an infant girl named Bella. Bella's grand parents are police officers in Tampa. Little Bella has Acute Mylengenous Leukemia and this is the type that normally attacks adults. Bella'a Mom had to quit work to care for her and her Dad works extra, but they were beginning to sink and were on the verge of losing their home. Preparations were being made to move in with their parents. So, Robert, a lieutenant at Tampa police, and bunch of rough & tough cops got together to put on the Bella Poker Run. If you didn't know, a motorcycle poker run is where you gather at a starting point and register by buying a poker hand. You get a one card draw there and it's marked on a card sheet. You take your card sheet and ride to the next location for your next draw, and so forth. Best 3 hands wins some money. We began working on this project about 2 or so months ago. Laying out the route, which was a 100 mile drive through some great rolling back road hills. One stop was a little "mom & pop" store call Boyette's Grove. When you went inside it was a big gift shop, art museum, ice cream parlor, sandwich shop and art gallery. If you purchased the $4 ticket, you then could go through the dinosaur and aquarium exhibits and the Zoo! A very interesting place!

Then we starting gathering up door prizes, raffle prizes and silent auction items. We even had a raffle going on for the past several months for a small 380 pistol. But it was for law enforcement officers only. Then it was meetings about every couple of weeks making sure we had everything ready. For several nights before the big day, I stayed up very late printing auction bid sheets and signs.

The big day arrived [Nov 8th. The day after Bella's 1st birthday] and we met up at Rapscallion's Restaurant on US 41 in a town called Land O' Lakes, FL. It looked like party going on in the parking lot. We had Cancer Survivor groups, we had T-Shirt sales, there were 50/50 tickets being sold and then the big part...over 200 bikers showing up to register. Lot's of individuals and individual groups. Then there were clubs like the Nam Vets and the Blue Knights. But best of all, our star of the show, Bella, made an appearance. Because of chemo treatments and a low immune system, she couldn't be allowed in closed area's with lots of people around her. Even outside, we were careful not to get to close. In the picture above, Bella is being held by her Grandpa, Brian for a photo op. When the bikes were given a blessing, they began to filter out and Bella was there to wave them on.

It was time to wrap it up at registration and I moved over to my next area of responsibility and that was the last stop. It was at a Beef O'Brady's in Wesley Chapel. Along with some of the volunteers, which included police explorers, we set up 10x10 tents, roped off parking lots and set up the silent auction and door prize tables. A specific area was set up for the "bank" with our cashier and an armed officer. The bikes began rolling in and were met with music from our DJ Scott and the operation was underway!!! People were having a great time, eating wings, fellowshiping, listening to the music, looking at the gift items and the vendors. The last bikes rolled in around 4 pm. and after we passed out the door prizes, the raffle started with emcee's Gary & Mike W. At 5 pm. I shut down the silent auction and our poor cashier began counting the cash!

As it stands...and some donations are still trickling in, we raise $15k for little Bella. If you would like to make a donation, contact me and I will send you the address of the children's cancer center that is clearing checks and/or can handle credit cards.

I got home late that night and took a hot shower and crawled into bed. Now I get to attempt to clean my computer den up from the debris of paper from letters, and forms and contacts...not to mention my SUV that was loaded down with stuff and still is! But ya know? It was worth it. The last report they got on Bella's treatments was that her blood count is looking pretty good. Let's hope that it's a trend for her.

In addition, I worked up this photo for the October edition of GOFAR magazine. You can see the mag online now at http://www.gofarmag.com/ I wanted something to go with the Halloween theme. I got a friend of mine that owns A Team Cycles to bring out his tricked out HD. It's really sweet, with lots of black. Even the engine has been powder-coated black. So where else better to shoot it? In the cemetery of course. The good/bad part was that we had a misty rain. Good that it added to the shot...bad, I don't like my equipment getting wet! I photo shopped the moon and darken the background. What you might not be able to see is, in the background over the seat area, there is a face. {enter maniacal laugh here}

The only thing is the Boss/editor decided that he didn't want to have the "Happy Halloween" on the cover. WHAT? They're made up of little skeletons!!! LOL Oh well...he's the boss!

Hope all is well with you and if you ride...ride safe. cya