Can I give you a lift?

Motorcycle ride for visually impaired veterans makes its inaugural trip Aug. 21

By Tracy Ouellette

SLN Staff

It started with a conversation last year between two friends, John Carter, a blind attorney who was a United States Marine and, T.J. Oman, a retired U.S. Naval officer who loves to ride motorcycles, about what they could to do to help some area veterans.

“I have a very good friend of mine who is blind and he and I were at lunch one day,” Oman said. “He was recently appointed as a judge advocate for the Blinded Veterans Association of Wisconsin and in that new role he was talking to me about what he might be able to do to increase interest in the organization.”

Oman said he brought up the possibility of having a motorcycle ride for blind vets since he had participated in similar rides with the Lions Club before.

“After that, it just took off,” he said. “We went to the quarterly meeting to the BVA and pitched to them, and they thought it was a good idea. Then we went to the American Legion and they thought it was a good idea. By December of last year we filed for corporate status and the IRS approved our 501(c)3 status in February.

“I think our first official meeting of the organization was in January and we’ve been rolling like a freight train every since.”

VIPER stands for Visually Impaired Patriots Experiencing the Road and the group’s first ever ride is set for Aug. 21.

“We wanted to do something, to give something back, to these guys,” Oman said. “We wanted to give them an experience. Something exciting. Something different.”

Organizers have been working non-stop since the beginning of the year to make the 110-mile, round-trip ride happen for about 40 veterans. The bikers are ready, and they can be seen stocking up on motorcycles oil (see https://motodeets.com/articles/best-oil-for-honda-civic/) for any necessary oil changes on the way. The trip will begin at the veterans’ home in Milwaukee and go about 55 miles through the countryside to East Troy, where the group will stop for a picnic lunch and rest at the Village Hall.

East Troy Village Board President Randy Timms has been instrumental in having the ride stop in the small Walworth County village.

“My son-in-law works at Miller/Coors and T.J. is a consultant for them and he told my son- in-law about the ride and how he was looking for a nice place to ride out in the country to have a break and then drive back and he told him to talk to me about it because East Troy was the perfect place,” Timms said.

“When they came out here and looked at our facilities and the area and saw everything we had to offer, they asked if they could have their dinner here,” Timms continued.

Oman said the generosity and the welcome from people in East Troy impressed them so much they changed their plans on their dinner party so it could be in East Troy.

“I can’t tell you how much it meant to us to have them offer so much,” Oman said. “We completely upended our event and moved the picnic out there.”

The picnic fundraiser will be from about noon to 3 p.m. at East Troy Village Hall, 2015 Energy Drive. The public is encouraged to attend. Food and drink purchases will help fund future rides.

“LD’s BBQ is making the meal with the American Legion’s famous roast corn,” Timms said. “And Gus’s Drive-in is providing us with soda and ice cream to make root-beer floats.”

The East Troy Fire Department and the Boy Scouts are also helping out that day.

“Our plan is to serve the meal and welcome the public, there will be live music too, and then at about 3 p.m. we’ll saddle up and ride back into Milwaukee,” Timms said.

Timms said his hope for the return run was as the riders leave East Troy and travel up Highway ES through the village square and pass Gus’s Drive-in, is that people will line the streets of the route like a parade to cheer on the vets.

“Some of them have partial vision and all of them can hear, so I’d love to see them get a great big send off,” he said.

The exact route the ride is taking is being “kept secret” for safety reasons, Oman said.

“We don’t want a lot of people out there on the route with us because it can cause safety issues,” he said. “Because of the nature of the ride, we’ve instituted a lot of rules to keep everyone safe, especially our vets.”

Oman said the group is actively raising funds to grow the event in future years.

“We want this to be an annual event,” he said. “We want to turn this into a huge ride with hundreds of vets each year.

For more information, or to donate, visit www.theviperride.org.