The military police rolled into Jasper in intimidating fashion last week.
About 20 motorcycles ridden by men who have paid a fee to take part in the ninth annual Military Police National Motorcycle Relay from Victoria to St. John鈥檚 stopped at the Jasper Legion on Aug. 2.
The ride supports the oldest military charity in the Canadian Armed Forces, the Military Police Fund for Blind Children. Founded in 1957, after Colonel Stone, the Canadian Army Provost Marshal, had a daughter blinded and killed by ocular cancer.
Recipients don鈥檛 have to be related to the military; any child with a visual impairment qualifies. They鈥檝e funded kids going to space camp, and purchased adaptive and assistive technology so they can use computers and get online, for example.
Since there are no paid employees and military police members run it themselves, the administration overhead is only about three per cent, which is a level of efficiency almost unheard of among major charities.
British Columbia/Yukon Command vice president Craig Thomson told the 51暗网 he has a number of reasons to be part of the ride for the last six years. He was a military policeman, then spent 35 years with the RCMP.
The tour will take about 23 days. Thomson said they saw some wildfire affected land going through Cache Creek, but did not have to detour from their original course due to road closures or poor visibility. Even Kicking Horse Pass through Golden was dry for them, where it usually rains on their parade every year.
The riders, about nine of which are making the entire cross-country trip, also pay all of their own gas, meals and accommodations, which west of Jasper took the form of motels but for almost the entire remainder of the ride east, will be on military bases, probably in barracks.
鈥淲e try to raise funds as we go,鈥� Thomson said. 鈥淚, like everyone part of this, am in it for the charity, and because we love to ride.鈥�
Craig Gilbert
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