Albany motorcycle clubs give away Thanksgiving meals

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - It’s the season of giving. Thanks to two biker groups in Albany, 14 Southwest Georgia families will have Thanksgiving meals on their tables this year.

Xtreme Ryderz collected enough food to give six families a Thanksgiving meal. Marvin Thomas and his motorcycle club Viper Unit added another eight to that total.

Both groups drove door to door in Sunday’s cold weather to deliver the food to families in need. The meals included the holiday staples of turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, yams and beans.

“Xtreme Ryderz, this is what we do. We get out, we get on our bikes, we ride and see what’s needed in the community,” Latosha Brown, treasurer of Xtreme Ryderz Motorcycle Club, said. “We wouldn’t let cold weather stop us because we know that there’s still families out there that are in need and need to be served.”

Brown has given away food with Xtreme Ryderz for more than a decade. This year, she said the need is different.

“We knew that more so this year than any other year that it’s important that we got out and we try to serve those families. Because when you go to the grocery store, what you paid for a Thanksgiving meal last year is totally different,” Brown said.

Michael Shane Taylor, a recipient of a meal, said he was grateful for the help.

“I am blessed as a single dad to get any help that we can have. We are blessed, we are thankful for everything,” he said.

For the past 3 years, Taylor had to come up with a meal. This was the third year he asked, and he was a member of a fortunate family who was on the list for Xtreme Ryderz. Similar to Xtreme Ryderz, Viper Unit also received more calls for assistance this year.

“We’ve had a couple (of) people reach out to us. Normally we go through and we figure out which families we’re going to do. This year we got a few more phone calls,” Thomas said.

This year, the group decided to extend its outreach further than just Albany. They delivered food to families in Sylvester, Leslie, Americus, and Plains.

“We enjoy the ride. Now we are stretching out 30 miles or so. So we’re stretching out so we can reach out to more families. I appreciate the guys and ladies standing beside me and behind me. They did an outstanding job,” Thomas said.

Their work spreading holiday cheer isn’t over. Glenn Wallace, a Viper Unit Motorcycle Club member, said the club has even more food to give away in the coming months.

“Peanut butter, dry beans. We even got coffee so they can make coffee. We’re going to give them stuff so hopefully, they can be warmed up,” he said.

The food was given to them by a distributor in Adel. Wallace said to expect to see the Viper Unit in the streets of Albany handing out food to the homeless and people in disadvantaged neighborhoods until they run out.

Xtreme Ryderz also has more events coming up for the holiday season. They plan on adopting an Albany family for Christmas.

Anyone who wants to help with their efforts can contact any member of their club through their Facebook page.

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