TAA 2/20/2012 ride update

[Gary Covert]

Hi Everyone,

I received a lot of help this week after I sent out an SOS about the
ride. I want to give a very big thank you to Bruce Mathis and Tia
Azlin, who is Southern Cruisers Rider Club, Oklahoma State Officer.
Tia Azlin sent me this email;

Gary,

I would like to offer the assistance of Southern Cruisers Riding Clubs
as you cross Oklahoma. Bruce Mathis shared this email with me. He is
a past State Officer for SCRC Oklahoma, and I am the current State
Officer. We have chapters across the state and will be honored to
help you in any way. We have SCRC Chapters across the nation and I am
sure we can coordinate escort and assistance all the way if needed.

Please contact me for any assistance.

Sincerely,

Tia Azlin
Oklahoma State Officer

For those of you that were on the first TAA ride in 2002 will remember
Bruce Mathis and his wife for the escorted ride they gave us on the
old Route 66 from American Legion Post 308 Tulsa, Ok, to Branson, MO.

I have asked TIA if she could get other SCRC State Officers to see if
their Chapters in the cities we spend the night will ask the VFW Post
if they will help bring everybody together. I have also told her I
will let the Oklahoma SCRC go for it in Oklahoma because I am very
proud to have the help from all of them. I want all the Armed Forces
Members and their families in Oklahoma know when TAA comes through
that the Oklahoma SCRC was the main force behind putting all this
together for them because they all mean something special to each and
every member of the SCRC.

Scott Rasco, Texas SCRC State Officer contacted me yesterday and asked
me what I needed from the VFW and he would start working with the
Amarillo, TX, SCRC Chapter.

The SCRC does not have a Chapter in every city we spend the night so I
am working on the ones they do not cover.

I know from the VFW Posts I contacted everything has been positive and
I am waiting to hear back from them after their monthly meeting.

I do not want to leave out Joe Sewell who has been the TAA Oklahoma
State Coordinator for many years on this update. He emailed me right
after I sent out the email saying there might be a 2012 TAA ride and
said he would like to help and that he had a new job and as working a
super amount of hours a week but would try to set up his vacation time
for he could ride some with us. I emailed him back but have heard
nothing from him since.

Torches Across America is put together by volunteers all across
America and I am just one of those volunteers. If you go to most years
posted about the TAA ride on the web and look at the menu bar at the
top of the page you will see ‘Thank You” click on it and you will see
all the volunteers that put the ride together for that year.

All I do is ask riders if they would like to ride with me to NYC
during the week of 9/11 and the ride is for a very special mission. I
also try to get us together with others in cities we spend time in as
we cross who are a part of the mission.

So what I am trying to say here is the ride is put together by
volunteers and I am very thankful and proud of all the volunteers and
riders that make TAA possible because during the week of 9/11. You all
help put a great big spot light on those who the mission of the ride
is about. The spot light forms a warm spot you put into their hearts
that stays with them forever. Sometimes those who the mission of the
ride is about want to thank all the riders so much they volunteer to
put something together for us in their city.

I thank all of you for your help and support of the ride mission..
Gary Covert