A Ride Back to Community

Ryan Brady, Willingboro, New Jersey

I’ve been riding ever since I was young. I got into a really bad motorcycle accident. I actually had to stop riding for about four years, and then when I moved down to East Windsor, I bought another motorcycle. When I bought another motorcycle, I was just doing solo riding by myself and was just trying to get back into the pace and the groove of things. And then I saw a Masonic meeting one day, and I saw someone with a vest on. And I said, “Hey, what is that?” And he goes, “Hey, it’s a riding association. It’s a bunch of masons. You have to be a mason in order to be a Widows Son.” And he says, “You know, we’re doing a parade. Why don’t you come out one day?” So, I said okay, and we went out and did the parade. If you’re a real rider, parades are slow. It’s a lot of clutch pulling, slow moving, a lot of duck walking. You’re going nowhere fast, but it’s for the community, right? We were able to be part of the community’s parade. I met the guys, and then after that, we went for a little ride, and I liked that they shared the same values that I did, and I ended up joining them.

So, the Widows Sons is a Masonic riding association. We’re not a club. We’re not anything like that. We do wear a vest. I call it a vest because the minute you call it a cut, you get associated. So, it’s not a cut. It’s a vest. The Widows Sons is about community service and charity. We do a lot of charity activity, like we raise money for the children’s hospital. Another Masonic organization is the Shriners. We raise a lot of money for Shriners Hospital in Philadelphia for children.

Last year we did a Touch a Bike event for the Epilepsy Family Services of New Jersey. And we did it on the beach. And the look on the children’s faces of just being there with your bikes is wonderful. You got all these guys that look intimidating with their motorcycles or whatever. And these kids, they pass no judgment. They’ll run up to you. They’ll try to talk to you. Some of them were nonverbal, so they didn’t participate much, but they were still part of the fun. But we did that for the children. We’re able to raise money for them. The ability that I have with Freemasonry and the Widows Sons, I mean, it’s just so gratifying that I’m able to do this.

Interview by Gregory Andrus
Portraits of the Jersey Shore