WHEATLAND – Biker and war veteran Kelly Mixson had heard of a ceremony called “The Blessing of the Bikes” but had not heard of it in Wheatland and he decided to do something about it.

According to the Lake County Chamber of Commerce website in Michigan, “2022 is the 50th anniversary of the original ‘Blessing of the Bikes.’ This event started with eight riders and four motorcycles in 1972 who gathered at the St. Ann’s Catholic Church.”

For more about that event, you can go: https://lakecountymichigan.com/blessing-of-the-bikes/

Mixson who lives here in Platte County and is retired and volunteers at his church went to his pastor at Memorial Baptist Church in Wheatland.

“When Kelly came to me and presented the idea, I thought, ‘yeah of course, let’s do this,” said Memorial Baptist senior pastor Chris Furl. “I did a small blessing service beforehand and spoke out of Ephesians 1:144 on the blessings we have in Christ. Keeping with the theme.”

The service actually began at 9:30 a.m. at the church located at 202 19 th Street in Wheatland.

Furl then took the congregants and bikers outside and said a blessing over both riders and their bikes. There were 23 bikes involved in the blessing service.

“I’m a rider for the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association,” Mixson said. “I thought, why can’t we do this for outreach for our community, so I went to Pastor Furl and he said, ‘absolutely’ and the next thing you know, it’s happening.”

The church then picked a date, put the information out on fliers and through social media and bikers from all over Platte County came and participated.

“We had 23 bikes today and 53 people in the church,” Mixson said. “And we burned through a whole bunch of hot dogs and hamburgers.”

Lunch was provided by the church and gave the weary bikers a hot meal before they continued their journey.

“It’s the first time we’ve ever done it and the people had fun,” Furl said. “We also had a good crowd and it was a good day.”