Meet the Board : Rider Relations Director Junie Rose # 383

Many of you already know me from the years I have spent riding the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge and many are getting to know me through the challenge. As the director of rider relations I am one of the first people you meet when signing up because I do your entry interview. Once we determine whether we are a good fit for your riding experience and passion for others we go from there. My job as the interviewer is to determine, as best as I can from a phone conversation, if you understand what is asked of you.

I absolutely LOVE to ride motorcycles. I love the people I meet on the road and at motorcycle events. Riding in the dirt as a kid in Illinois is were I had my first riding experience and from there occasionally road but did not get real serious until my kids were older. My first Harley was a 2006 Smoky Gold and Black Fatboy. I went in for boots and came out with a bike. From there I started taking trips on the bike usually with one of my kids on the back. 10 miles of dirt roads in the dark in North Dakota heading for Saskatchewan was my first encounter with what I would call tough roads. My daughter and I were following a challenge Harley Davidson had put out to earn a commemorative pin. It required you to ride from Sturgis to Saskatoon. I got the pin!

Although I am on the board I do not look at the route prior to the event because for me that would be like unwrapping a Christmas present before Christmas. Riding the event is my favorite part of the HHMC but a close second is the new family I have married into and of course fund raising. From the first riders meeting when I heard Jim Red Cloud speak from his heart about the Lakota People  he pricked my heart to help. Another of my jobs as the director of rider relations is to encourage and direct the riders in their fund raising efforts. I love my job and although it is a volunteer position I feel like a CEO! I get to hear the road stories and write the Meet the Rider biographies you are reading. This allows me to share some of my road experience and what it has been like to be one of those five Warriors who has ridden all the HHMC routes.

Fund raising for me has come very naturally and at a very young age I saw the needs of others and felt lead to help. Whether it was a walk-a-thon, bike-a-thon, dance-a-thon I was in. It is hard sometimes to ask people for money but when it is for a cause I believe in I haven't been disappointed yet. As a kid I walked for a youth center that years later my kids benefited from. There are always going to be needs and I like to say "If everyone does a little a lot gets done." Philemon 4-7

I look forward to seeing what the road has in store for us and seeing the finish line a little sooner than I did in 2016.