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High school student summons rolling thunder
One year ago, Mark and Yolonda Deane announced the opening of a new house in Brandy Station to support veterans. It would be a transitional facility to provide shelter, counseling, job training, transportation, and most of all, compassion.
Ever since, the Deane’s have faced some diversity, but mainly they’ve found support. On Sunday, April 13, that support roared together in full force as over 75 motorcycles took to the Culpeper roadways to raise money for the Compassion House.
It was all part of a senior project organized by Patricia Kline, 18, a student in Culpeper County High School’s Career and Leadership Academy.
“Most motorcyclists support the veterans and I just think that we need to show a lot more support for them than we give them,” she said. “I just wanted to get it out to the community to let everybody know about Compassion House.”
The high school senior decided to focus on the veteran’s facility last August after reading articles on Compassion House in local newspapers.
“A lot of people get recognition all the time, your standard charities,” said Matt Kline, Patricia’s father. “She knew about Compassion House and jumped right in. I’m really proud of her.”
Patricia not only organized the charity ride with bikers from across the state, but set up food, a silent auction, and music for an event held at American Legion Post #330. In the end, she raised over $2,600 for Compassion House.
“Even a high school student can step up. She wanted to do something that no one else was doing,” said Yolonda Deane. “She wanted to let everyone know that she was in support of it and her dad’s a veteran, so it has been rolling ever since.”
Speaking of rolling, the Winchester Chapter of Rolling Thunder, a group whose mission it is to bring all prisoners of war home, came out in full force to support the veterans. They had 10 members present.
“There are over 96,000 prisoners who haven’t made it home since WWII. It’s still an ongoing thing, although most people think it’s all over,” said chapter president Dwayne Breaux. “Anything to do with veterans, we are there.”
The ride took all the motorcyclists on an hour-long tour around Culpeper, starting on Route 522 and working back to the American Legion building on Route 229. It was quite a sight to see.
“Once the word gets out to the ones that do this all the time, it spreads,” said Matt. “Motorcycle riders are great folks. This is a good cause and we’re all glad it turned out like it did.”
As for the student who put it all together, Deane had nothing but praise. If an 18-year-old can make a difference, everyone can.
“When I see all of you together, it’s history reminding us of why we have to stand together,” said Deane to the crowd of riders. “If we don’t make a difference, we can’t make it work.”
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