By Don Emde

It was great to hear from Joe Lawwill that people are sending in their RSVP’s for the Mert Lawwill Celebration of Life – A Life Well Lived. It will be held at the Carson Center here in So Cal on August 30th. It was a real honor for me to be asked by Joe to emcee the event. It will be a return to the same stage that Mert and I and others were on back in 2022 when the Trailblazers honored him. As we will be featuring on August 30th, Mert’s rise to the top of the motorcycle sport is only one part of his life story.

After his own years in the saddle, Mert built lighter racing frames for Harley XR750s, worked with Kenny Roberts to put a race team together and with rider Mike Kidd (R.I.P.) they won AMA #1. Later Mert got into Mountain Bike racing along with his son Joe, and Mert brought motorcycle suspension technology to that sport.

Mert’s legacy also includes products known as Mert’s Hands. My current Facebook profiles me on stage at the 2022 Trailblazers banquet with Mert and Shane Cahill, a double amputee whose life was greatly improved by the use of Mert’s Hands.

Shane will be at the Celebration of Life to tell us more about how Mert changed his life, as well as friends from the motorcycle world…Kenny Roberts, Wayne Rainey, Chris Carter, Allan Seymour (On Any Sunday crew), Troy Lee, plus others from the motorcycle, bicycle and prosthetic community.

To get all the plans in place, Joe needs to know how many attendees to expect, so if you would like to attend, please submit your confirmation at: https://www.mertlawwill.com.

There are a few different opportunities to choose from, including donations to help support the event.

I hope to see you there.