Local resident touts Top Hatters' charitable activities

OFF THE WIRE
Dear Editor,

It is Christmas time once again and we are once again participating in the annual canned food drive put on by our local motorcycle club the Top Hatters. It has been our family tradition since we moved to Hollister in 2001. This happy event makes me want to shine a light on the gracious community service our local bikers are happy to give, year after year. I'd also like to publically thank the Top Hatters for their kindness and generosity.

I am looking forward to a new outlook from our new sheriff regarding bikers and their place in our town's heritage as the Birthplace of the American Biker. Our former sheriff viewed bikers with fear and loathing. I hope that is NOT the case with Sheriff Thompson. Bikers were given a lot of very negative press.

All of this negative, local press was especially disturbing since it came on the heels of the death of a local American motorcycle legend, Jess Bravo. Jess deserved a write up outlining his place in the history of the American biker. Jess and Joe Bravo and their brothers and friends founded one of the oldest motorcycle clubs in America, the Top Hatters MC.

Jess was proud of his club and his club brothers. He was an honored and respected gentleman whom I will miss dearly.

He was proud of the THMC and so am I.

Every year our hometown club holds poker runs raising cash for the high school scholarship funds. They offered up free round the clock security for our recent cancer fund raiser the Relay for Life. They hold canned food drives for our local food bank just like the one today. They served up Thanksgiving luncheon for our local nursing home. They spend ALL week end at least once a year cleaning up a long stretch of Highway 156. These men and their families do as much as they can as often as they can to support and enhance our community. Their four other chapters follow the same policy of community service in their towns as well.

I myself have been labeled a "biker" for 44 of my 58 years of life. I know more bikers than most and I am proud and happy to be one of them. At least 75% of the men and women bikers that I have met are also veterans. These people and their families sacrificed and served our country proudly. They have earned our respect and they deserve to pursue happiness on their motorcycles. They are our friends and neighbors and they hold jobs and pay taxes.

Please, do NOT believe the slander and hype being said and printed about the Biker Nation. Please, research the rich history of Hollister and its honored place in the American Biker culture. Watch the news and notice the Bikers across America holding rides to support victims of tragedies, crimes, illnesses and natural disasters. Read the Event Calendar in a biker magazine like Thunder Press and see for yourselves the rides and runs raising funds for schools, diseases, fire victims, you name it.

Bikers can unite and give time and money like NO other group I know of. I love and respect them and I am grateful for their service to my country and community. I am proud to a member of the Biker Nation. My passion and purpose is to restore the respect and honor our heritage as the BIRTHPLACE OF THE AMERICAN BIKER.

Christy Howe, former HMRC secretary/biker rights advocate

http://www.freelancenews.com/opinion/270946-letter-local-resident-touts-top-hatters-charitable-activities