By: Coach, Sober Souls MC, State Rep
The Sober Souls Motorcycle Club is a traditional MC that is celebrating 27 years in 2018. The club was started in 1991 and is a charter member of the Colorado Confederation of Clubs. We are, as stated earlier, a traditional MC that operates under its own bylaws with a National Governing Board. “The purpose of the Sober Souls Motorcycle Club is to encourage and conduct ourselves amongst motorcyclists with sobriety, spirituality, fellowship and service work. Putting the welfare of the group above self-interest and helping others, individually and as a Motorcycle Club.” We take this mission statement very seriously, and, with multiple chapters in Colorado, we are able to do this service work from Ft. Collins to Pueblo and beyond.
All the SSMC members are recovering drug addicts and alcoholics who run the gamut of society; some of us have had some of the obvious legal problems that come with addiction and alcoholism, while others have not. There are members who are mechanics, construction workers, students, addiction/recovery counselors, musicians, artists, teachers, ex-military, high-level employees of billion-dollar companies, and so on. We are grandfathers, fathers, sons, brothers, single men, married men, Christians, Pagans and atheists.
Chapters across Colorado participate in many charitable events that include rides for cancer patients or kids with medical conditions, toy runs, addiction and recovery charities, fallen bikers, etc. Some examples of our annual events are:
Send the Kids to College Run – which supports kids with addiction issues and helps to fund higher education.
Annual Peer 1/ Haven Toy drive – which gathers hundreds of Christmas presents for kids whose parents are in intensive inpatient treatment programs.
Realities Ride for Children – We do fun decorations and help decorate bikes for the kids, bike parade as well as donate new bikes for the winners of the publicly voted best decorated bikes.
Feed the Homeless – Three times a year we do a feed the homeless event, in which we supply food, water, hygiene supplies, and clothing to hundreds of the Denver areas growing homeless population; and finally
The annual Soul Repo Poker Run to benefit The Hornbuckle Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit which helps fund sober living and recovery treatment options for many. This run is growing every year and features top musical talent.
We also host and fund a very popular recovery meeting every week at a local inpatient treatment facility. Many of the Souls also make an annual trip to Cedaredge, CO for the International Serenity Run, which is kind of a Sober Sturgis. Like most other Motorcycle Clubs in our communities, there are a lot of behind the scenes activities that go on that support many local charities.
Speaking from a personal level as to what the Sober Souls MC has done for me, I can say this club has given me a home. When we found each other, I was already active in recovery, with 8 years free of drug use, and a little over 2 years free of alcohol. I was trying to do service work within the community on my own and just didn’t feel I was having much of an impact. One man alone can only do so much, so I sought out a group of men with whom I felt I could have a greater impact on more people. I was introduced to the club by my fallen brother Big Mike. From there many things began to click and change in my life. I began an extensive hang around/prospect phase. I grew to know humility, learned to plan events, learned to help wherever I was needed and worked my ass off to be the best future brother I could possibly be. I eventually worked my way to gain the vote from my future brothers to become a full patch member. Now, the sky is the limit for me personally. I’ve been pulled from the dredges of society, TO SERVE A HIGHER PURPOSE.
For more information on the SSMC, or to request help with alcoholism/addiction please go to SoberSoulsmc.com and hit the contact a Soul link at the top of the page, check out our Facebook page: Sober Souls Motorcycle Club.