It was also a great opportunity for me to join up with 29 other riders from the Edmonton area for an event called “Lilah’s Birthday Bully Ride”. This event was hosted by a local Edmonton rider Steve Enns who started a Facebook group in 2017 called “Bullying Enns”. We never know how many riders will attend these events as Steve just posts the date, time and location to meet on his Facebook page and if you wish to participate all you have to do is show up. For Lilah’s birthday ride, everyone met at Tim Hortons in Devon for 11:00 am. From there we all rode north from the town of Devon to where Lilah lives on a small acreage. We then presented the young lady with some gifts as well as a “Bullying Enns” T-shirt, after that she was taken for a short ride. We all arrived back to her home in time to help celebrate her birthday with all her invited guests. We had been informed by Lilah’s mother that Lilah had been bullied at school by some of her classmates, so she invited them to the birthday party hoping that this experience might have some positive results.

For these events we generally met at a designated location and then ride to the school where the child that is being bullied attends. After they are finished for the day we are all waiting for them outside of the school to greet them. On Monday, April 23rd. there was another ride planned for Devon which followed this process. This was for a young man who attended the Elementary school in town. We again met at the Tim Horton’s in Devon at 1:00 pm. We had 20 riders attend this event which was great too see considering it was a weekday and not in the City of Edmonton. We were parked across from the school for more than an hour before the kids were dismissed. Through this time, we had lots of young people, parents and their teachers come out and speak with us and look at all the bikes. I don’t know how many kids don’t love shiny motorcycles… Once school was dismissed the young boy who has been being bullied at school and his younger brother were both presented a “Bullying Enns” t-shirts in front of their classmate’s other students and teachers. I also had an opportunity to talk briefly with the class about the effects of bullying which I thought was a great opportunity. “Be a buddy…Not a Bully”. After this Steve took the young man on his motorcycle and I took his younger brother on my bike for a short ride then took them home with a parade of the other bikes following.

For me and I am sure many others feel these types of events are a positive way to help a young person with the unfortunate reality of being bullied by other kids. The idea is to try and help them by showing the kids that there are lots of people around that are there for them and they don’t need to feel alone. We want to help the young person by trying to build their ego and improve their confidence. The experience also allows them to hopefully make new friends and talk about their experience with other kids.  If you want to know more just look up Bullying Enns on Facebook and join the group.

R.Ralph