The Warriors Motorcycle Club hosted its annual fun day in the park on June 22, collecting a mountain of donations for the South Porcupine Food Bank and providing fun activities for kids and their families.
“We do it every year in the last week of school to kind of celebrate summer,” says Phil Lavoie, the Warriors Motorcycle Club’s road captain. “We’re basically a bunch of buddies that decided to start a club to help the community. That’s the gist of it.”
Lavoie has been riding motorcycles for much of his life, but got away from them when his kids were younger because he wanted to focus on his family. He bought a bike again about five years ago once his kids had grown, and got involved with the Warriors soon after that.
“I have a couple of really close friends in the club and they said, ‘Hey, you should join and see what it’s like.’ I went in with two feet and I’ve loved it ever since,” Lavoie says.
This was the club’s third year hosting their day in the park.
Lavoie says the turnout was better last year and managed to collect as much food donations as they could stuff into a pickup truck and almost $1,000 in cash. Donations of hot dogs, buns, and bottled water from local grocery stores allowed the club to donate 100 per cent of the money made on food sales to the food bank.
The Warriors run other events and fundraisers throughout the year to gather donations for the food banks, but they’re ready and willing to help almost any cause. They meet a couple times a month to discuss and work out events and everything is done with the community in mind.
Every year they hold a charity ride to raise money for someone in need — last year’s was for a young girl in need of surgery, whose family couldn’t afford the recovery time in Toronto. They’ve raised money for funerals, they visit lemonade stands with as many club members as they can muster and pay $20 per glass, and they bought bedding for some of those who were displaced by the fire at the Empire Complex back in March.
“That’s just what we do. People reach out and we do what we can to help,” Lavoie says.
There are three other chapters of the Warriors Motorcycle Club scattered across the province, one of which is in Sudbury. It was the Sudbury chapter that floated the idea of starting a club in Timmins, which now has just under 20 members. They are always looking for more.
While the Warriors are always open to different ways to give back to the community, their soft spot is for kids.
“That’s where our heart is, is with the children. All of the guys absolutely love kids and it’s all about the kids. That’s why we do this fun day in the park, that’s why we’re a club, that’s why we help with lemonade stands and the kids that are in need, that are sick or need surgery. That’s where our heart is. We’re not dangerous people. We love to help out all the kids,” Lavoie says.
“The community reaction has been excellent. A lot of us have friends in town and they help us out as much as they can. My friends’ kids are here helping and doing volunteer hours for high school. They’re glad to help us out,” Lavoie says.
While most people have responded positively to the club, there have been some naysayers.
“Most of the community is great with us and we appreciate that, it’s just the very few that are very opinionated and it hurts our cause a little bit. I’m not sure if it’s jealousy or if it’s perception. A lot of people watch fictional movies and have these assumptions of what a biker club is. They see us as being these bad people who do bad things all the time and a lot of people voice their opinions very harshly on the internet,” Lavoie says.
“We’re all a bunch of decent guys. Yeah, we’re all big, ugly and scary but we all have hearts of gold, we all look out for the kids. It’s all about helping the needy. We try to avoid backlash because it gives us a bad image on social media, and that’s a big thing in the world right now,” he says.
Any donation s— especially to the food banks, which they work with often — are helpful to the Warriors’ cause. The club has a charity run scheduled for July 27, during which all participants pay an entry fee to ride and the money raised from those fees will go to a family in need. They are still on the lookout for that family, and any leads are welcome.
To learn more about the Warriors MC and their charity work, or to get involved, visit their Facebook Page.
