{"id":7912,"date":"2015-08-18T22:07:32","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T04:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=7912"},"modified":"2015-08-18T22:15:40","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T04:15:40","slug":"motorcycle-club-raises-6000-for-veterans-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2015\/08\/motorcycle-club-raises-6000-for-veterans-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Roundup motorcycle club raises $6,000 for vets home"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"45s\"<\/a>

Members of the Forty Fives motorcyle club roll out after presenting check at Independence Hall.<\/p><\/div>\n

When motorcyclists from Roundup roared into the parking lot of Independence Hall July 11<\/span><\/span> to begin a club rally, Bill Holder wasn\u2019t sure what might result.<\/p>\n

Holder, director of veterans services at the Volunteers of America-operated residence hall for formerly homeless veterans, often fields offers from the community to help veterans. The Harley-riding club\u2014called the Forty\u00a0Fives\u2014was a little different from church groups bringing in cookies or secondhand clothes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The motorcyclists, veterans themselves, said they wanted to begin their rally at the veterans transitional housing facility in the Heights to benefit veterans.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThey wanted to do something to help veterans and promised a donation later,\u201d Holder said. \u201cThat was good enough for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The members prefer going by their nicknames\u2014Bootleg, Jolly Rodger, Moody\u2014rather than their real names. They don\u2019t even like to acknowledge how many members are in the club, although a dozen is a good guess.<\/p>\n

Motorcycle clubs typically like a bit of the maverick aura.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>\u201cBut I thought what they planned on doing was fine,\u201d Holder said. \u201cIt was veterans doing something to help other veterans. We didn\u2019t have to do anything but provide the parking lot for them to register folks for the rally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Imagine then Holder\u2019s surprise when members of the club returned three weeks later to present a check from the rally. It was made out for $6,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was blown away,\u201d Holder said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t be more surprised and grateful. Honestly, I was thinking they might give us a couple hundred bucks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The club does not have many members,\u00a0club president Lyston \u201cMoody\u201d Lusby acknowledged, but \u201cenough to get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The annual rally, called the Brothers in Arms Rally, is only in its second year but more than 100 riders showed up for the run to Roundup.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve learned something from last year. That was our first rally,\u201d Lusby said. \u201cThis year we really pulled it together and next year we\u2019ll fine tune it even more and do even better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Club\"<\/a>

Jack Thompson, vice president of the Forty-Fives motorcycle club, watches as Bill Holder, director of veteran services for Independence Hall, reads the check presented by the Roundup motorcycle club.<\/p><\/div>\n

Fives<\/p>\n

Lusby, a 20-year Army Special Forces veteran, is one of the founders of the Roundup club, which takes its name from the .45 caliber pistols most veterans are familiar with since it\u2019s like the Colt M1911 military issue revolver.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we tried to come up with a name we\u2019d Google it and every name we came up with was already taken. Then one day after target shooting with our 45s I said maybe that\u2019s what we should call the club and no one had that name, so that\u2019s what we wound up with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The second annual Brothers in Arms rally included a motorcycle run to Roundup where there was overnight camping, a bike rodeo, bingo and poker runs, and music by the Kosmic Jokers.\u00a0Proceeds came from the registration, sponsorships and a raffle that this year featured two prime camping sites at the famous Buffalo Chip Campground for the 75th annual Sturgis rally.<\/p>\n

Last year proceeds from the rally went to a disabled veteran.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year we decided to help the veterans who were recently homeless to help them reclaim their lives,\u201d said Lusby. \u201cWe\u2019re glad our donation has an impact on so many veterans. That\u2019s what we wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Independence Hall is a 20-bed men\u2019s transitional living facility where assistance is provided to veterans with housing, employment, medical assistance and other supportive services so they can reintegrate into the community, Holder said. More than 300 veterans have been served since the facility opened in October 2009.<\/p>\n

It also is a facility that now has an unexpected $6,000 to help homeless veterans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When motorcyclists from Roundup roared into the parking lot of Independence Hall July 11 to begin a club rally, Bill Holder wasn\u2019t sure what might result. Holder, director of veterans services at the Volunteers of America-operated residence hall for formerly homeless veterans, often fields offers from the community to help veterans. The Harley-riding club\u2014called the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":7913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2955,2954,1814,2956,713,1816],"class_list":["post-7912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billings","tag-45s","tag-bill-holder","tag-independence-hall","tag-lyston-moody-lusby","tag-roundup","tag-volunteers-of-america","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}