Will Chavez - Cherokee Phoenix
Nov 11, 2023
GROVE – The mission of the Combat Vets Motorcycle Association in Grove is to help veterans. Their motto is “Vets helping Vets.”
“We are a group of veterans and active-duty guys and girls that ride motorcycles as a hobby,” CVMA Grove Chapter Secretary and Cherokee Nation citizen Woodrow Greenfeather said. “We are also a 501c19 charity that provides assistance and helps individual veterans, veteran care facilities, such as the Claremore Veterans Home, and other organizations who help veterans. We sponsor and participate in veteran-related motorcycle events and many other charity events each year.”
CVMA was formed as a non-profit in May 2001 with the objective of helping veterans. In 2002, the organization added to its membership requirement that new members had to have served in a combat zone and ride a motorcycle as a hobby. A skull logo patch was also chosen to represent the group.
Today, membership includes combat veterans, auxiliary members (spouses), honorary members (those with military service but no combat) and support members (friends and family).
“We don’t actively recruit. If we’ve got combat vets that want to ride with us, they don’t have to join. People that’s been there and done that, sometimes it’s easier for them to talk and relate to people that’s been there too,” Greenfeather said. “There’s no prospect time. Our prospect time is your time overseas in combat.”
He added money generated through the association’s events has been used to help a veteran repair a leaking roof, fill a vet’s propane tank for the winter, helped pay for an unclaimed veteran to be buried and donate much needed socks and T-shirts to a veterans’ home. Assistance has also been provided to some of the various charities in the community that helps veterans get back in the woods to hunt.
“Everything we do is all volunteer. We don’t have anyone that’s paid. Every dime goes to other veterans,” he said.
He added the organization does a bike run every summer to raise money and accepts donations to do their work. CVMA Grove also organizes an annual raffle for a rifle to raise funds for their service area, which is halfway to McAlester, west nearly to Tulsa, north to Bartlesville and then to Arkansas state line east and north of Grove.
CVMA has five Oklahoma chapters – Grove, Tulsa, Lawton, Oklahoma City and McAlester. Greenfeather has been a member of the CVMA for 10 years and the Grove Chapter for eight years. Greenfeather added most of the Grove Chapter members served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I would like to reach out to our Cherokee veterans that ride and let them know there is an organization that welcomes them with open arms. We are not a 1% club and are not run like one,” Greenfeather said. “We are family friendly and encourage families to be included. “With the rate of veteran suicide, I can tell you from experience that this organization is there for them.”
He explained 10 years ago, in September, he was involved in a serious motorcycle accident south of Eucha in Delaware County when he was hit head on by a car and was thrown from his motorcycle. During his long recovery, he was told he would never walk or ride a motorcycle again.
“I shouldn’t have walked away or lived. The doctors told my family to start making phone calls; I wouldn’t make it 48 hours. I was in a coma for a month, and when I came out I was told I would never walk or ride again,” he said. “With the help and support of my CVMA brothers and sisters, 10 years later I walk without the assistance of a cane and have ridden my Harley Davidson Tri Glide as far away as Sturgis, South Dakota, and Louisville, Kentucky. My CVMA brothers pushed me more than any physical therapist or doctor could.”
For more information about the CVMA, contact Greenfeather at 918-314-3335 or email him at woodrow.greenfeather@gmail.com.