Popular motorcycle club teams up with Rodeo Houston to honor military
HOUSTON - The unofficial start of the rodeo season kicks off this weekend with a parade in Downtown Houston.
You may expect to see a lot of cowboys riding horses, and you will, but also dozens of men on motorcycles honoring our military.
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The Deacons of Deadwood will be rolling-in to Downtown Houston this weekend as they partner with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo to honor our men and women in the military.
"Over a third of our membership is military, so we have a strong basis where a lot of these guys have come from the military. They understand it directly. They've been through some of the pains of it. And they too wanted to have a mechanism where they can reach out," explains Geoff Seaman, former President and Charity Representative for Deacons of Deadwood.
The Deacons have been raising crucial funds for local charities for several decades.
"The Deacons started off 20 years ago when we would all ride up to Sturgis for the annual rally and we would stay over in Deadwood, South Dakota. Twenty years ago, a bunch of guys came back to Houston and said, why don't we start a motorcycle club, which they did. And they said, let's make it a little bit different. Let's do something for children's charities. And that's kind of how we got our start," says Geoff.
The Deacons typically focus on raising funds for kids, but every year they focus on our military as well. They hold a special breakfast to honor them before the Rodeo parade, thanks to one of their members, who is the anonymous donor for the event.
"Just doing something in recognition of our armed forces and that's all of them - that's Navy, Air Force, Marines, Army, Coast Guard, whomever," states Cliff Davis, the President of Deacons of Deadwood. "It's very well received, at least from what I can see, and they really appreciate just that we appreciate them. The city appreciates them! It's just one of our ways of giving back to them and it's a small token of our appreciation for what they do and what they go through, so it's just part of our mantra as far as a charity is concerned," says Cliff.
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The Deacons of Deadwood are 100-members strong and have raised more than $3 million to help support local children's charities. Their members are businessmen and professionals who have at least two things in common.
"It's the motorcycles and it's a charity that bring us together, and we don't care where you come from, as long as you have those two elements that you want to be part of this organization," says Geoff.
The breakfast takes place Saturday, February 26, at Heritage Plaza on Brazos Street around 7:30 a.m. before the rodeo parade.
For more information visit https://www.deaconsofdeadwood.org