The 2015 Motorcycle Ride For Dad

Blue Circle is a very proud sponsor of the Calgary Motorcycle Ride For Dad, which took place this past Saturday. It had been a rainy, wet week and Friday was no exception but it was clear skies and sunshine as we all assembled at Deerfoot Mall to start the ride. 

We had a few less bikes than last year, maybe due to the potential of rain, but iur riders were a happy and enthusiastic bunch and it was a fantastic day.

Many, many thanks to the RFD Executive who worked hard all year long to put this important event together and contribute so greatly to the Prostate Cancer Centre. Also, many thanks to the 100 + volunteers who spent part of their Friday and Saturday registering the riders, manning the poker stops and helping with the BBQ at Springbank. 

Two of our hardworking RFD Executive

It's a golden day!!

The bikes started lining up early

One of Blue Circle's VIP guests, Jill, on her sparkly ride

Steve and Ron are the co-chairs and work harder than most to make the event a success

More riders and their bikes

Blue Circle's prez, Gerry Baert, acknowledges the great cause of the Ride For Dad

Blue Circle was very pleased to contribute to Prostate Cancer Research andAwareness 

The Blue Knights were there too

Gerry, myself, and our VIP guest Keith snuggled up with some of the great volunteers selling 50/50 tickets

Everyone is keen to get riding

The good doctor speaks about his research (and the drone watches!)

Last year's research grant contribution was just over $55,000.00

More hard working members of the executive, including our Ride Captain, Jim Perry

Our too cute VIP guests Roxy and Jill were happy to ride together

Celebrity guests Bill Brooks and our lovely and talented M.C., Jaqueline

Litwiniuk Barristers and Solicitors also contribute greatly to teh charity

Blue Circle's very own Fred Pletsch was ready to ride

Gerry is geared up and ready to roll on 'Blue'.

Poker card run pit stop at Motorrad in Turner Valley

We are fortunate to have many, many great volunteers, young and old!

The Man-Van was there, giving free PSA tests

I cannot deny liking VIP parking

The 50/50 winner took home $1200.00 and there were plenty of other great prizes too

Two Wheel Sunday

Blue Circle was proud to be a part of the 2nd Annual Two Wheel Sunday, an event designed to bring together everyone in the motorcycle community to help learn, share and understand motorcycle culture here in Alberta.

 

Quite a few people showed up before the event actually got started

James Hamling, from The Victory Riders MC, organized the TWS Show n Shine

A nice little custom bike by Lucid Kustoms

Nice detailing on this bike

Every kind of bike and every kind of rider, including the 4 legged kind!

Cool custom paint on this ride.

Some of the Show n Shine bikes

Who doesn't recognize the Indian motorcycle



I never did find out what this old Harley used to deliver

Two Wheel Sunday couldn't exist without a whole lot of great volunteers, some who looked after traffic control

A very cool vintage Vincent, which I believe is a Black Shadow

Bike parking extended way down the street, a block away from the event

The Man-Van was also there, and had 30 men go through testing half way through their time allotment

These kids liked their Blue Circle shirts

4th Annual Ride 'n Roast

Wow! What a great day this turned out to be, with fantastic weather, a great group of riders, a delicious, hot breakfast served up by the Blue Circle crew, and an awesome ride on a classic route, with classic stops along the way. The wrap up was grasciously hosted by Cycleworks Foothills and there were a whole lot of raffle prizes from both Cycleworks and Kanes, plus a fat poker pot of $1400.oo to the winning hand of 4 eights! And, the Motorcycle Ride For Dad held a 50/50 draw with the winner taking home $750.oo as well, so it was great to see that good cause receive a bit more cash and many thanks to the riders who pitched in and bought tickets.

Thanks to Ride Stop 'n Go's Troy and Ang for pulling it all together and making it a fantastic day for everyone involved. We can't wait for the 5th Annual in 2016!

Bobby Baum, from TWS and CVMG, thought he had to show some skin to get breakfast! LOL

The bikes started lining up early

Troy and Ang shared the plan for the ride and wished everyone a safe ride

Our rooftop view of the event

The ride gets started and it took 5 minutes for all the bikes to roll out

The ride ends at Cycleworks

My beautiful bride was chatting away with the other riders

Federation Of Bowls And Cups

I belong to the Inglewood Lawn Bowling Club, which is over near the Zoo Bridge on 12 St and 8 Ave.S.E. in Calgary. There are several leagues within the club and my Wednesday night group is one that goes by the name of the "Federation Of Bowls And Cups". As you can tell by the bit of tongue in cheek name, we're all about having some fun and cameraderie while trying to master the skills of rolling an oval shaped bowl that is biased on one side, down the pitch, to see who can get closest to the 'jack', the little white ball similar to that used in bocci. In fact, lawn bowling is like a combination of bocci ball, curling, bowling and putting, with a need to develop a good strategy, read the greens properly, find the right line, and deliver a bowl with just the right speed to allow for the curl, all so you can get closer than your opponent, or bump him out of the way, or even push the jack toward your own bowls. Sounds simple and the game is easy enough to learn, but so, so difficult to master.
Anyway, our league has been going since the year 2000 and is always full to capacity, with many returnees each year. Each league night we get to enjoy a tasty meal prepared by one of our teams and there's even an award for best meal of the season. Then we play a couple of games with the 17, four person teams who sport names such as "The She-Wolves, The Bowlsheviks and my own squad..."The Bowling Stones".
It's funny that everyone who hears about the lawn bowling makes jibes at me about it being an old folks game, and though I am actually 'old', our league consists of a lot of players between 25 and 40. We enjoy a few wobbly pops while we play, and our game is slightly modified to allow for more players and a speedier game, but we have some awesome bowlers young and old and we have a ton of fun playing.
For the past 8 or 9 years we've been diligently fundraising, knowing that our old building was collapsing and unsalvageable. At the end of last season we knocked it down, saving a few key components, and built our new club house. Other than the land which is leased from the City, we received no grants or any other kind of financial assistance, but managed to pull together and build this cool building. It easn't easy and we're a bit 'house poor' right now but we'll be back on track soon and in the meantime, we'll be bowling!

The new club house is a radical change from our old one... 'the little house on the prairie' as I called it.

We have tons of room now

The back end of the building

Our new kitchen is looking good

The design makes for a cooler interior, unlike the old building which was like a sauna

A simple design

Our "Heritage Wall", with historical photos and parts of our old club house,  is a point of pride