April found Chapter A setting up an MA display at the Woodland High School Car and Bike show in Stockbridge. Once again, interacting with show goers and passing out brochures and bumper stickers. Chapter T in Athens also held their annual Spring Fling event in April and had an 18 wheeler onsite so that attendees could climb into the cab and see for themselves the blind spots that exist. Those that made the climb came away with a better understanding on where to position their bike/trike in order to be seen.

May was Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month and the Motorist Awareness Coordinator for Chapter D, Ron Ciccarone along with Terri and Phillip Kozlowski and the entire Chapter D team put on their 2nd Annual Motorist Awareness Event in Cumming, GA on May 15th. It was a super event supported by city, county and state agencies. Check out the June addition of Full Throttle magazine for an article about the event.

June found many of us at the Georgia District Convention in Hiawassee. A great time was had seeing old friends and making many new ones as well! We held a Motorist Awareness seminar that was attended by 28 members! After the seminar, Dick Hopkins from Chapter A, Grady Riner of Chapter S along with my wife and I held a Motorist Awareness event in front of Dill’s Food City off of Main Street in Hiawassee. In the intense sun and heat, we spoke to shoppers as they came in and out of the store. One shopper after talking to us, took a bumper sticker and placed it on his bumper before he even left the parking lot.

Looking ahead, we see even more opportunities to get out our message of “Sharing the Road”. We have our ongoing grass roots campaign of “Building Motorist Awareness One Motorist at a Time!” Additionally, we are sure you and your Chapters have other ideas and events planned. Please let us know what we can do to help. If you have a story to share, an idea for an event or even a suggestion, please send it to us. Motorist Awareness month does not just happen in May, it happens every month! There is an acronym we were taught many years ago: TEAM (Together Everyone Accomplishes More!)

We would like to apologize if we failed to mention your event and Chapter. As we get better with the reporting process, we will do another of these articles to showcase your Chapters and members. You can and do make a difference not only to GWRRA, but the entire motorcycling community! Keep up the excellent work!