Local 249 MC raises $1,500 for clean water

By Pat Hayes

Local 249’s Motorcycle Committee served up mouth watering honey mustard chicken wings to an appreciative crowd at Harris Park Community Center in Lee’s Summit Sept. 9 to raise money for clean water and local relief efforts.

This is the fourth year the committee has participated in the Wings 4 Water event, according the Motorcycle Committee Chair Josh Curtis. The Motorcycle Committee was one of 35 sponsors serving up some 16,000 wings alongside live music at this year’s event.

At the Wings 4 Water events, now in it’s fifth year, people come out for free and enjoy live music while eating a wing from as many sponsors as they want. Then, they vote for their favorite wings with money and 100% of the vote goes to global clean water efforts and local relief efforts.

At the Sept. 9 event, people tried wings from as many different sponsors as they want. If they wanted to vote for a particular wing, they donated money to that team via credit card or online with their phones.

In addition to the money raised though votes for the wings cooked by the Motorcycle Committee, Local 249 donated $1,500 to the group’s clean water efforts.

The money raised provides filters, pipelines and wells to communities around the world struggling to obtain clean drinking water. Last year, money raised at the Wings 4 Water event went to citizens of Flint, Mich.

Some 3,200 people are drinking clean water today because of the efforts of Wings 4 Water, according to Chris Turney, a founder of the group. Just $50 can provide a family of four with clean drinking water for life.

At the events, stealth judges have the enviable job of sampling wings cooked by the sponsoring organizations and voting for their favorites, says Curtis. One of those stealth judges, Bobbie Bell Jr., the son of legendary Kansas City Chiefs linebacker and defensive end, put the wings cooked by Local 249’s Motorcycle Committee in second place out of all the sponsoring organizations at the competition.

“The Wings 4 Water events are a lot of fun. There’s live music and lots of wings to sample,” says Curtis,“ and it’s all for a good cause.”

In addition to Curtis, other Motorcycle Committee members who helped make the Wings 4 Water event a success are William O’Neal, Sharon King, Joe Lumpkin, Darrin Piper, Greg Duncan, Chip Snow, Sarah King, Sarah Allen, Jacob Scott, Wymann Simpson and Gary Thomas.

“The Motorcycle Committee is one of the most active committees at Local 249,” says Local 249 President Jason Starr. “We should all be proud of the charitable work they do in the community. All of our standing committees do outstanding volunteer work throughout the year. All of our members should take pride in the work our members do to make the Kansas City metro a better place to live.”