Wetzel MC honors fallen motorcyclists

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

GROVER HILL — An idea formed many months ago became a reality on Sunday, when member of the Wetzel Motorcycle Club unveiled and dedicated the new Fallen Bikers Memorial. The event was well attended, with over 100 people present for the dedication ceremony.

WMC member Rob Taylor, who’s road name is “Stitch” came up with the idea two years ago and was the driving force behind the memorial.

“We have had some tragic loss – we lost our president (Jake DeMoss) in 2022 and there was a close friend we lost about a month prior to our president and there have been a couple of others since then,” Taylor explained. “We just wanted a way to be able to recognize those individuals and all the other individuals out there. There’s been a lot of pain and heartache come from our tragedy and we know there’s a lot of other people who feel the same.”

“We just wanted to put a memorial up that would be a common place for people to come and shed a tear and share a memory,” he added.

Taylor went on to explain that a generous donation was a key part of making the memorial come to fruition.

“We lost one of our brothers in 2021 – he had a massive heart attack and his mom and his sister through his estate donated some money and said they wanted to see something done on our corner property, so we were able to utilize those funds,” he stated. “Last summer we started to design and do a layout of what we wanted to do and we decided right away we wanted to put a motorcycle up on a pole, so that was donated by a gentleman who lost his father in 2022.”

The memorial, which is now open 24/7 at the corner of Paulding County Road 12 and County Road 177 in Grover Hill, features a 12×12 pavilion area along with bricks on the ground.

“We’re engraving the names of people that went down on a motorcycle, so that’s how we’re memorializing those individuals,” Taylor said.

Club membership is not required to be memorialized and Taylor noted several other motorcycle clubs from the area have names on the blocks along with members of the general public who were lost in motorcycle accidents.

“Right now we’re looking at maybe once or twice a year to hold a little ceremony to add new names,” Taylor stated.

For anyone who wants to add the name of a fallen biker, the Wetzel Motorcycle Club is working on a Facebook page that will be called “Fallen Bikers Memorial Wetzel MC” which will be linked to the club’s website, wetzelmc.com. There’s also an email address, wmcmemorial@gmail.com.

Fundraisers will be held to help with the cost of the bricks, and while some people may be able to afford the cost of the bricks, others may not. The fundraisers will ensure no names are left off. All fundraiser information will be listed on the club’s Facebook page.

A fundraiser that’s sure to be popular is planned for Wetzelland, 2024, which is scheduled for July 25-28. 

We have a dunk tank that will be set up and its my understanding that nine local clubs will have their presidents sitting on the dunk tank and the partygoers will have a chance to buy balls to throw at those presidents to get them wet in the dunk tank,” club member Shane Shaffer said. “All of the money raised from that will be used for the memorial.”