A church is not the typical place that you would expect a group of bikers to meet, but that is just what took place on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.
One by one, two by two and group by group, 250 came together at the Littleton Baptist Church. Participants came from Caribou, north, southern Aroostook County and Down East, too.
The Baptist women greeted the visitors with tables filled with homemade breakfast items, fruit, coffee and juice.
This successful event was by far the largest group yet to join other bikers for the ‘Blessing of the Bikes’ sponsored by the county’s United Bikers of Maine and hosted by Pastor Steve Straubel and the members of the church. Straubel recalled how the service has evolved over the years and there were moments of sadness while others brought tears of joy.
In early 2000, he met the late Dathan Mills, a Littleton biker who was unable to bike any more due to cancer. Straubel stopped into his Station Road home, not knowing Mills, he didn’t know if he would accept a visit from a minister, but Straubel was welcomed into the Mills’ home and invited back several times after. During some of their visits, Straubel learned how much Mills liked to bike and how hard it was for him to see other bikers riding by his home, wishing they would stop in to chat or that he could jump on a go, too. His bike was parked in his garage; Mills, too weak to take it out.
Mills died in the winter of 2002, and later that spring Straubel was asked to preside over the committal service where six or eight of his biker friends attended. They rode to the gravesite with their flags flying high.
A year went by and on Memorial Day 2003, the first ‘Blessing of the Bikes’ service was organized in memory of Mills. Only 10-15 bikers attended. The late Ann Duff, on the social committee of the church organized a small reception and from there the yearly remembrance of Mills and the Blessing of the Bikers was born.
Through the many biker’s clubs, word spread of the service and although some years there were only a handful of bikers showing up for the Memorial Day event, this year the yard was full, the most ever. The sanctuary was black leather from wall to wall, no suits or ties.
A group of 50 from the north was escorted down by Caribou patrolman, Douglas Bell and several more came from Machias and Calais.
Byron Skidgel, from Caribou, president of the Pine State Motorcycle Club and his wife have been coming to the service for three or four years.
“It is a great atmosphere and we enjoy meeting bikers from other areas and clubs,” said Skidgel. “This shows a different side of bikers. Everything we do, we do for charity. The public is not always aware of the many causes the bikers support.”
One could compare the bikers to the most recent judging of singing sensation Susan Boyle when she first walked out on stage in the Britain’s “Got Talent Show.” To look at the middle-aged woman with an old fashioned hairstyle and no previous makeover, the crowd and the judges dismissed her as a serious competitor, but once she sang the first few bars of “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical, “Les Miserables,” the crowd was stunned.
Bikers have been labeled because of their dress and scruffy beards, long hair and decades of being connected with the infamous Hell’s Angels. But did you know that the clubs work tirelessly throughout the year for charities?
Some raise money for “Learn Not to Burn” programs in schools, in September they conduct their Toy Run collecting gifts for needy children.
To coincide with the Memorial Day Weekend service at least 100 bikers left the church in Littleton to stop at the emergency rooms at Houlton Regional Hospital, then biking to TAMC in Presque Isle and Cary Medical Center in Caribou leaving hundreds of stuffed teddy bears for children who come to the emergency rooms.
One story shared at the service was that about a child severely burned and in a very emotional state being calmed after receiving a large sized monkey left by the bikers group.
As Pastor Straubel led the service, he welcomed everyone from near and far sharing a little of the history of the service with everyone.
With humor interspersed he informed his congregation that he had been a Harley wanna be since his involvement with the bikers group, “But, he said, I am here to tell you today that I am a Harley rider for a day, having borrowed a bike and I am in Hog Heaven.”
The church was filled with laughter and the guests settled in for the remainder of the program.
Paul Graham, a Vietnam veteran of Houlton shared this story. Graham had been at the Texas Roadhouse Restaurant in Bangor with another veteran earlier in the week. They were dressed in their biker wear with their veteran’s insignias on their jackets. Before finishing their meal, their waitress, Kara brought them a note from another customer that said, “I saw you sitting at the table beside us and thought to myself, ‘It’s Memorial Day weekend. Everyone celebrates, but how many of us stop to thank a Vet?’ It’s not much, but thank you for everything you gave for my family and me. Signed, Carla.”
The waitress, Kara, told Graham Carla, who had already gone, paid for their meal.
Graham said, “I was overwhelmed, that was probably the nicest thing anyone could have done.”
That note not only touched Graham and his friend, but also the waitress who proceeded to tell the County bikers that her father had served in Vietnam and lost a leg. He could no longer bike due to the prosthesis, but rode in a sidecar. He had passed away four years ago.
Straubel closed the service with the following poem. It seems to say it all. Maybe after reading this the next time one sees a biker they may see beyond the outfit and see what’s in the heart.
“I saw you hug your purse closer to you in the line at the grocery store, but you didn’t see me, put an extra $10 in the collection plate last Sunday. I saw you pull your child closer when we passed each other on the sidewalk, but you didn’t see me, playing Santa at the local mall. I saw you change your mind about going into the restaurant, but you didn’t see me attending a meeting to raise more money for the disaster victims. I saw you roll up your window and shake your head when I drove by, but you didn’t see me driving behind you when you flicked your cigarette butt out the car window. I saw you frown at me when I smiled at your children, but you didn’t see me when I took time off from work to run toys over to the homeless. I saw you stare at my long hair, but you didn’t see me and my friends cut 10 inches off for Locks Of Love. I saw you roll your eyes at our leather coats and gloves, but you didn’t see me and my brothers donate our old coats and gloves to those that had none. I saw you look in fright at my tattoos, but you didn’t see me cry as my children where born and have their names written over and in my heart. I saw you change lanes without signaling, while rushing off to go somewhere, but you didn’t see me going home to be with my family. I saw you complain about how loud and noisy our bikes can be, but you didn’t see me when you were changing the CD and drifted into my lane. I saw you yelling at your kids in the car, but you didn’t see me pat my child’s hands, knowing he was safe behind me. I saw you on a cell phone; reading a map as you drove down the road, but you didn’t see me squeeze my wife’s leg when she told me to take the next turn. I saw you race down the road in the rain, but you didn’t see me get soaked to the skin so my son could have the car to go on his date. I saw you run the yellow light just to save a few minutes of time, but you didn’t see me trying to turn right. I saw you cut me off because you needed to be in the lane I was in, but you didn’t see me leave the road. I saw you waiting impatiently for my friends to pass, but you didn’t see me. I wasn’t there. I saw you go home to your family, but you didn’t see me because, I died that day you cut me off. I was just a biker … A person with friends and a family, but you didn’t see me.”
In the words of Pastor Straubel, “This is a prayer service, I don’t preach. Our church family wants you to know that we care.”
Straubel has earned his wings and is now considered an honorary chaplain for bikers.
As bikers left the service they were given copies of the New Testament by representatives of the Gideon organization.
Biking clubs represented at the service were, the United Vets of Maine, Pine State Riders, Firefighters Club, Hog Chapters, American Legion Riders and the United Bikers of Maine, Washington County Chapter.
