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Why I ‘Wride’
During the 2013 Unity Tour, Chuck Buttitta, a
retired LAPD SWAT Team sergeant and the lead
rider for the Chapter VII Challenge Ride, started an
“open mic” tradition at every break. Before getting
back on the road, two or three participants stand up
and tell, “Why I ride.”
Last year, Nanette Wride, who was riding for the
first time for her husband, Utah County Sheriff’s
Sergeant Cory Wride, stepped up to the microphone. Cory was gunned down in an ambush in
2014 when he stopped to check on what appeared
to be an abandoned vehicle. Nanette told about
how she was the nurse on duty when Cory was
brought into the hospital.
“When you think about why you are riding, that
brings it home,” confirms Southern California
Chapter VII leader Gil Curtis. “These are the very,
very tough stories that drive us.”
Unity Tour funds raised year by year (1997-2015)
19 and counting
Missing only 1997’s inaugural ride, retired Berkeley
Heights Detective and Local 144 Past-President Mark Stallone is the only PBA member who can boast having participated in every… other…single… Police Unity Tour. And
boy how things have changed.
“The first year I went there were 36 guys riding,” he
recalled. “It was all kind of on the fly; we would just ride then
stop at a strip mall and get something to eat. Now I’m really
impressed with how the different chapters all split up.”
Stallone, who rides with Chapter VII Southern California/Challenge Ride, didn’t start riding for anybody in particular, but rather because he was a cyclist and said “I can help
with that.”
Today, after rides that have included every type of
weather challenge and one where he suffered seven flat tires
on the first day alone, he keeps up his motivation by
remembering the names of officers he knew who had been
killed in the line of duty, as well as those across the greater
thin blue line.
“There was an officer killed in Utah and I met his family
two years ago,” he noted. “I just received a message from his
son thanking me for doing this.”
Stallone estimates that riders are “in the saddle” for about
24 hours across the multi-day ride, which can sometimes be
a daunting proposal.
“If we have good weather it’s great; if it’s raining and
there’s headwind it can be pretty taxing,” he empathized.
“But you think of why you’re doing it. It’s something every
officer should do before they retire… or after they retire. Just
do it.”
Unity Tour number of riders year by year (1997-2015)
er
www.njcopsmagazine.com
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