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Blessed are the choppers
Blessed are the choppers
Gallery
The Rev. Gregory Maturi offers a prayer to more than 70 motorcyclists who attended a motorcycle blessing Saturday at St. Dominic Church on the city’s South Side.
St. Dominic pastor fuels motorcycles with a dash of holy water for safety
YOUNGSTOWN
At 70 years old, Gail Taylor said she’s had many blessings. And she got another one Saturday as her motorcycle and 70 others were blessed by the Rev. Gregory Maturi at St. Dominic Church on the city’s South Side.
“I’m so happy to have it blessed,” said Taylor of her three-wheel Stallion, which has a four-cylinder Mustang engine in it. Taylor, of New Springfield, said she was a motorcycle passenger for most of her life and bought her first bike, dubbed the “Silver Lady,” last year.
After a rain-out last week, nearly 80-degree temperatures and sunshine greeted motorcyclists who gathered in the church parking lot Saturday afternoon.
Before the brief ceremony began, Father Maturi hopped on his Kawasaki motorcycle — which has made trips to New York and Washington D.C. — and parked it among the others.
“We’ll start the season with a blessing and motorcycle safety review. We’ll start the season right,” he said.
Father Maturi said a Catholic blessing that asked God to watch over travelers, people who come together and the means that they use to come together, in this case motorcycles. He then sprinkled each motorcycle with holy water with the help of Randy Blakeman of Austintown.
Motorcycle blessings occur nationwide, said Buzz Wollet, 74, of Austintown.
Wollet has been riding motorcycles since he was 12 and said he has attended many blessings, including one sponsored locally by the Latin American Motorcycle Association.
“I’ll take all the blessings I can get,” he said.
The ceremony ended with a cook-out and safety review from a Harley- Davidson representative.
Mike and Diane D’Amico, of New Springfield, said they knew they wanted to come to St. Dominic Church for the blessing as soon as they heard about it.
“It’s nice to have one close to home,” Diane said, adding that it’s a positive event in an area sometimes known more for its crime.
The couple purchased their motorcycle specifically for long road trips, which they take annually in the summer. They plan to ride to the Blue Ridge Parkway from Roanoke, Va., to Cherokee, N.C., in August.
Mike urged drivers to always look twice for motorcyclists, saying even he has been behind a steering wheel and had trouble spotting a motorcycle.
“[Motorcyclists] need all the protection we can get,” he said.