By Dave Twichell

Hurricane Matthew laid its deadly force on Florida cancelling the 8th Annual Unity Outreach Think Pink Ride for Breast Cancer in October. Cancer of any kind doesn’t stop for extreme weather and neither do we, so the ride for Hope, Support, and Research was rescheduled for November 19th. One doesn’t have to look far to find someone afflicted by Breast Cancer – a quarter-million Women every year and sixty-thousand Men will battle the deadly beast. An estimated 40,000 people will die from this fight in 2016.

With extensive support from St. John’s County Sheriff’s Department over a hundred bikers were escorted from the Flagler Imaging Center. Perfect weather was a blessing for the seventy-mile route. Residents lined the roadside to cheer on the parade of supporters and survivors. Plenty of downed Cypress trees and damage piles served up the pre-Thanksgiving reminder of how much vengeance rained down from Matthew just weeks earlier.

As with nearly all benefit rides, the crowd was diverse in both Machines and their Riders. After such an ugly month for America, bikers are one group of citizens that can put aside our differences for a common cause any given day. We rode together on heavy steel with loud-ass pipes alongside comfy Cruisers kickin’ jams through City & Swamp. A harmony of sorts was thrown together to raise awareness and lofty dreams of ultimately eliminating this cancerous threat.