Ideas on a bike blessing help needed

[fishhead]

Hi all. First Let me say that I am a saved christian. I'm looking to save more...
We'er here on Kent Island, Maryland and attending a new church plant that is being driven by our Lord in many ways. Our church is The Bridge. www.hisbridge.com Outreach is our biggest order. We have a chance to be part of a local event (car and motorcycle show) and want to have a Bike Blessing. What I'm looking for is some pics of past blessings and some ideas of things we can do to draw people to the event. This event is being put on by our local Lyons Club. The pics are for a slide show to convince them that our Blessing will increase their draw. All the money raised by Lyons goes to help the needy in the community, but as far as the blessing and The Bridge, we want no monetary return what so ever. any ideas? any help. I know the Lord will provide..
Thanks to all in this blessing. I will be back to let you all know how things are going..
God Bless Bill and Paula Currence

[dtroll]

In my area we have about three bike blessings a year. They are usually advertised in all the biker locales in the area within a 75 to 100 mile radius. Community calendars, some of the free handout bike magazines, and Thunder Press as well.

The area motorcycle ministries help organize and work the event.

There are usually designated gathering points the day of the blessing that leave at the appropriate time to arrive at the blessing location.

Some blessings have music and food while others do not.

The Mission in Santa Barbara has a great blessing each year with about 600 or so attendees.

[GrayRider]

We had one last year at our church. As dtroll said,..it was advertised at all the biker hangouts and shops. We brought in a food vendor and served lunch. Everyone stood by their bike and the elders of the church went from bike to bike and blessed them. We also gave each biker a patch we had made.

[franksam]

I am a member of the Lord's Paheece chapter of CMA in Southern Illinois. We hold the annual Blessing of the Bikes at Bald Knob Cross in Alto Pass, Illinois on the last Sunday of each April. This will be the 15th year for the event. Bikes from Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, and other states come on up for the blessings. There are many, many pictures posted at www.soilme.com

We start at 11a.m. with blessings under the cross and food for the riders. A message is delivered at 1 p.m. If the weather is nice, we can have almost 2000 bikes come through. If the weather is cold and rainy, that limits the riders. The road to the cross is a very remote curvy back road...almost a one-laner.

I'd be happy to share more with you.

[bikernut]

I went to the first ever bike blessing at holy hill (03 celebration)...they gave pins to all that showed.....the arch bishop said mass and tommy tompson our gov made a speech

[LarryM]

We've had one locally for 20+ years. Its held every Mother's Day so the weather is warm but it has rained more than a few times. Anyway, lots of bikes show up. Its held in front of the Cathedral. An altar is placed on a flatbed. A good sound system is a must.

One thing you do not want to do is have some women screech out a song at a pitch that most guys can't hear. After riding Harleys most guys are kind of deaf to high tones. Keep songs to a minimum. Avoid the huggy feely mushy woman's songs. (Those songs might appeal to Gold Wing riders.)

[Nytmare]

We have an annual Blessing of the Bikes in April-ish. It's usually nice weather.
For many years it was held downtown, in front of the city hall building, but it got too big and the police had to block greater and greater sections of the city to allow room, so it has moved to differing locations.
Last year, it was held at a Catholic church w/ a LARGE parking area. Bikes still lined the streets and up and down the ajoining areas...
The event has drawn quite a large cross section of society and is advertised through all the channels mentioned. The local CMA's will have some stickers made up, and there are usually some vendors selling items, and maybe a couple of bands (usually Christian rock types). Once everything gets underway, a priest will give a small sermon and a prayer. Then the fun part starts...
The priest will stand at the end of a street that will serve as the exit area. As you ride up, he will sprinkle a little Holy water on your scoot and another person(s) will hand out a sticker that says "I was blessed in 200x" and off you go.
This has been a popular ride to attend and it gets a lot of "nice" publicity on the local news stations.