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Upon Receiving the first Roger Street award for service to the club, Harold Bridge sent an e-mail to editor Lyle Beaulac...

The Editor,
"BC Randonneur"
Lyle,

Please allocate some space in the next Newsletter to record my thanks for, & appreciation of, being honoured as the first recipient of this new trophy. Going by some of things Roger has said & done in the years I knew him I think he would approve.

His comments in his write-up of the first Rocky Mountain 1200 in 1996 about how I would appear at the appropriate moment doesn't take into account the reasons I was there helping. Having been crippled by arthritis I was driving my truck around the event. Believe me, I would have been riding if I had been capable of qualifying. I am just very thankful that I was able to overcome that period. My positive attitude was largely due to being involved & not just sitting at home bemoaning my condition.

Do I deserve the trophy? Probably, but there are several who would qualify if the idea had been put forward earlier without the tragic loss of Roger. The late John Hathaway for inspiring Gerry Pareja to get the ball rolling, Dan McGuire for his thoughtful & well planned contributions bring 3 names to the fore straight away.

Joining a Club involves accepting a certain amount of Marxist philosophy; "To each according to their need, from each according to their ability" is, I think, most appropriate in it's relevance to how a Club works. That statement isn't much different to St Peter's: "The strong must carry the burden of the weak".

Due to my self-centred & somewhat irresponsible life-style I am in a position to do what I do for the Club & can look back on earlier days as a working family man when I would not been able, or willing, to do that much.

I think choosing future recipients could well become contentious & to avoid that perhaps a points system needs to be devised to decide the outcome. In the same way the Hathaway Trophy is awarded on the basis of total kilometres, The Street trophy could be awarded based upon the total points earned during the season. Say; holding office - 10 points, organizing an event - 5 points. Staffing a control - 1 point. That idea may need more thought, but it is offered as a concept, no more.

Harold Bridge

March 14, 2004