Donna’s gift

Honouring Donna: Some of the participants and organizers of the first annual Donna’s Ride for the Girls assembled around Donna’s husband, Harvey Cooper (centre) and her closest friend Debbie Gadd at New Life Home for Girls in Consecon.

Ride celebrates the life and contributions of a ‘giving’ person

Donna Cooper loved helping others. Her life was her kids and her family. When the kids grew up and went out on their own, Donna began volunteering to help other kids.

“She had a passion for helping others,” explained Donna’s best friend Debbie Gadd. “It was about the kids and everybody else, it was never about her.” Avid motorcycle riders Donna and Debbie, along with their husbands, Harvey and Jake, liked to spend summer weekends cruising the countryside. Donna and Debbie decided they would organize a cruising event to raise funds for the New Life Girls Home in Consecon—one of the organizations to which Donna had given her time and energy. But the event never got off the ground.

Then last year Donna got sick. On the first day of October, she was gone.

Harvey and Debbie knew they wanted to do something to honour Donna’s memory and contribution to this community. Just after New Year’s they decided they would organize a riding event in the County through their club the Canadian Motorcycle Cruisers Branch 088.

“None of us had organized anything like this before,” recalls Debbie. “But we just pushed ahead. That was kind of how Donna was—she tackled things that seemed insurmountable and did them anyway. I know she would be thrilled to see this happen.”

So on Saturday morning riders from as far away as Hastings and Brighton and all points in the County rumbled toward Heritage Hall, north of Picton, for breakfast.

Despite a steady drizzle that threatened to dampen the event—few were deterred.

“Riders like to ride,” said Jake Gadd, Debbie’s husband.

Following breakfast the riders crisscrossed the County between five locations— the next destination determined by the luck of a draw. At each point they drew a card.

When they all assembled back at the New Life Girls Home in Consecon later that afternoon, Cindy Walt had the best poker hand. For this accomplishment she received a brand new kayak donated by ClearWater Design canoes & kayaks of Northport.

The proceeds for the first annual Ride For Donna will be used to fund programs and resources at the New Life Girls Home.

“It is a nice way for us to continue to do something she would have done,” said Debbie. “And keep her in our hearts.”

Harvey worked hard to keep it together as he answered questions about his wife. Donna was a lab technician at University of Guelph when the couple met.

“When she got to the County she always wanted to give back,” remembered Harvey.

Now she is gone—but Donna is still giving back.