The Tar River Community
Take a look around your neighborhood. It says something about where you are from, it speaks about who you are. If you are looking for the address of a Forbes Fortune 500 are you going to expect to be driving around in a trailer park? If you are looking for someone who raises organic pigs are you going to be driving around downtown Manhattan? (now the organic pork is there but that isn't the farmer) If you are looking for a Pastor you look in the local Churches, looking for a DJ you look in the local radio stations, looking for a Yankee you go up north, looking for a rebel you go down south.
Simply put, the community you are in says something about the larger dynamic picture of who you are and what you are about. The same can be said for most organizations. Tobacco mills developed in areas that tobacco was raised. Dairy products come from areas that support the life of a cow. Wineries exist where they do because the grapes grew where they do. We here in the Tar River Chapter of Bikers for Christ are no different.
Lets go back over a decade to the 1998 Time Magazine Article, "The Top 100 Places to Live in America." I don't remember the number, but Rocky Mount, NC, the central hub of the Tar River region, was there. I remember this very well as it was a major influence into my own move into the area. What the magazine didn't know was what long term ramifications were in store for current area trends, and the disaster that was going to hit around the corner. You see by the time this article was written the life blood of Rocky Mount, and the area at large, had already left the area. The community had been built on the backs of the textile mills but with outsourcing and the death of the cotton farmers, the mills died as well, but it took some time for the effect to truly hit the area.
This slow death all changed overnight though with destruction that came with Floyd in September of 1999. No Floyd wasn't a crooked politician or a pro wrestler gone rouge, Floyd was a flood that literally destroyed the region overnight. We went to bed with wind and rain, and woke up to find that our region had been turned into a series of isolated islands. Businesses and homes alike were simply washed downstream. Lives were lost, families were devastated, farms were destroyed. Many companies simply decided it was easier to shut down the plant rather than try to rebuild. The few jobs that were left in the community disappeared overnight. Entire neighborhoods were condemned. Entire towns were wiped off the map. Graveyards were washed away, playgrounds become the dumping ground of nature, the streets became cesspools and life never quite recovered to what it was. To this very day there are neighborhood that had steps leading to houses that are no longer there, driveways going into empty lots, cul-de-sacs going in circles in empty fields.
Perhaps you are saying you heard of us more recently. Well you may have seen the various news reports of the infamous Rocky Mount Serial Killer. Whenever a new body or a new missing person who matches the profile comes up suddenly the eyes of America are looking our way. Not only do we have our own serial killer it seems that race is main factor in the murders. Of course when the news is here one of the major things they want to cover is the racial tensions that still exist within certain pockets of the Deep South. It's a shame that our biggest news story in the area is something this tragic.
Or maybe you saw the article Forbes released in 2010 naming Rocky Mount, NC as one of the 10 poorest cities in America (the website has been removed for some reason or I would link it here) Of course our local city council denies that things are bad, or if they say things are bad, just not that bad. How can one fix a problem if one says it doesn't exist? And what does it mean to live in one of the poorest cities in the nation? Well unemployment is over the state and national average, foreclosure auctions go without a single bid as no one can even afford the foreclosures. Poverty is a big discussion, as well as living cost, salary rates, and health care. We are not a political organization, but we exist inside of an area that politics drive the make-up of the community.
So how does all of this affect a Motorcycle Ministry? Well for one we are parts of the larger community at large. Many of us have gone through the process of struggling through losing our jobs, homes, bikes, and more. We understand the struggles our community faces as we are a part of those struggles as well. As such we try to keep our cost at a minimum for our members. We also try to make sure that we give back into our community and through other community outreaches. We do more than just work with bikers, we volunteer at the homeless shelters, we glean fields with SOSA, we mentor with the Boy Scouts, we work through our local churches, and help any local church that gives us a call, and one of our favorite events every year is a Father's Day ride to the local orphanage. From rat bikes to show bikes, from Harleys to Hyabusa's our chapter loves them all, and we open our arms to all bikers regardless of race or bike model.
We can't exist outside of the community we are in, but we can exist to serve it. If you would like to sponsor some of our events, we would love to talk to you about your tax deductible donation. More than money though we need your prayers. What we do here is bigger than the financial or political world, it's for the eternal souls of those in the community as well. We love our community, faults and all, and we are working to make it a better place, one life at a time.
