Red Knights Motorcycle Club Florida Chapter 11
Chapter History
History of the Red Knights
and Florida Chapter 11.
and Florida Chapter 11.
During the summer of 1982 several firefighters were discussing the fact that the law enforcement people had the Blue Knights motorcycle club, but there was no equivalent club for firefighters. The owner of a motorcycle shop, Randy Wilson suggested to Ed Wright a firefighter, that they form such a club.
Ed Wright printed up some posters to pass out to firefighters to see if anyone wanted to join a motorcycle club just for firefighters. On August 17th, 1982, the first group met at the Northboro fire Headquarters with Fire Chief Jack Pierce to discuss the formation of the club.
On October 19th, 1982, firefighters Colin Mackey, Bob Bourassa, Ed Wright, Roger Wentzell, Dave Hamilton, Bob Goulet, David Hunt, Jon Tripp, Don Parker, Norm Beausleil and Chief Pierce met again. They were the first members of the Red Knights Motorcycle Club.
In July of 1983, a chapter was formed in Connecticut. In October of that year a second Massachusetts chapter was formed. Other states far and wide.
In August of 1983 the founding members elected a committee to serve as a National Board of Directors. With applications for membership from Ontario and Saskatchewan, Canada, the club became the Red Knights International Firefighters Motorcycle Club.
In 1984 the first club convention was held in Boylston MA. Each year since that time a convention has been held for all Red Knights in several states and in Canada.
To better manage the vast growth of this organization, Several sectors were set up. In May of 2005 the Dixie Confederacy of the Red Knights Motorcycle Club was established to encompass the southern states as far west as Texas. The first meeting was held at that time in New Orleans.
The Florida Chapter 11 was established by Tom McCoombs in 2003, who, passed around flyers to see if anyone was interested in joining.The first meeting was held in the Palm Coast firehouse on October 22 of that year with just 12 members. Now, just five years later we have grown to over 70 members with new applicants waiting to join.
We have selected the Burn Center at Shands Hospital in Jacksonville as our charity and so far have had many successful poker runs to help support them. We have rides for members and guests nearly every week.
We meet the first wednesday of each month at Hijacker's Restaurant at the Flagler Airport. We look forward to continued growth, fun and fundraising as move toward the future.
Red Knights
Palm Coast, Florida