An officer at the State Correctional
Institution at Dallas located in Pennsylvania, was hit by a drunk driver and left with a bruised brain stem. He had
expired his sick leave time and had no income to pay rent or bills. In an effort to raise some funds for the officer, some
Correctional Employees who rode motorcycles came up with the idea of a benefit run. The run was a huge success.
A few weeks later while sitting around a campfire, Charlie Coleman, Linda Wodyka,
Paul Robison and Ed Lanyon talked about
the run that they had just put on and pondered that there were other Correctional
Employees that might be in the same predicament. If one person could benefit from this action then if we organized as
a club we could have a reserve on hand and could assist others in their time of need. The wheels were in motion as ideas
spilled into the embers of the campfire for hours. When the evening was over a plan of attack was in place. Included
was Jack Callahan whose idea it was to form the original run.
Jack took the idea of the "Pride" as our name and created the symbol that is
now our back patch. The original set of by-laws was drawn up and from there the idea was brought to public forum where
it was met with favorable response. At that venture it was determined that an Executive Board should guide the new club
and an interim Board was elected. Ed Lanyon as President,
Tom Micknich as Vice President, Art Comparetta as Treasurer and Rich Snyder
as Membership Chairman. Thus completing the circle of the eight (8) Founders.
