A Difficult Situation,
Shows True Character of Young Noble

By Gary J. Bergenske

We often talk about how the Shrine makes good men better, and this past week as I attended the Florida Shrine Association Convention in Fort Myers I saw something happen that made me proud to be a Shriner.  It was a pleasure to watch how a young Noble handled a difficult situation.

It was a hot day in Fort Myers as the clock approached the noon hour.  Being in the middle of an asphalt parking lot as the temperature approached 90 degrees had everyone sweating and looking for a cool drink.  The event taking place was the competition for the Florida Shrine Motor Corps.  There were many people there along with mop heads, Fancy Harleys, Tin Lizzies, and many other types of vehicles there to compete for a trophy against other Shrine Units.

One of the most watched events of the day is always that of the large Harley dressers going thru the obstacle course.  Some of these guys appear to maneuver one of these large bikes thru this tightly laid out course as though they could do it in their sleep.  But don't let that fool you, riding a bike thru this course takes concentration, athletic ability, skill, practice and maybe even a little bit of luck if you are to get the best time and place for a trophy. When you talk to the guys as they are getting ready to run, if they will talk to you at all, they are nervous, the anticipation is eating away at them, and there is always the fear that you might mess up or get to aggressive and not make it thru the course.  If that happens, that's it, see you next year Noble.

As a young Noble pulled up to the starting line, you could see the determination on his face.  He was no doubt a contender for the best time of the day.  Everyone knew it, but that only seams to put more pressure on someone when you are expected to do well.  As he squealed the tires off the starting line and headed down the course everyone was watching, he made that first turn perfectly.  It seamed that his body and the bike were one, working in unison as he glides thru the course making the difficult almost look like music in motion.  As he approached the finish line it soon became apparent that this young man was going to have a flawless ride and turn in the best time of the day so far.  He hit the finish line with a smile on his face, and that look of pleasure and confidence that you get when you know that you have done something extremely well.  A man standing next to me who was timing the run on his personal stop watch held it up to me to confirm that this was the best time of the day.  It was an exciting moment.

But wait, what was happening, there seamed to be some confusion going on.  No it could not be true, that would not be fair, how could this happen.  For some unknown reason the official stop watch had not recorded the time of this excellent run.  So now what??  It was determined that this young Noble would have to run the obstacle course again.  Oh no, I thought to myself, to put two runs together back to back that good would be nearly impossible.  I can tell you if this was happening to me, I think I would have lost it.  How could this happen?  Even if I could have kept my composure how could I concentrate enough to run it again?

As they broke the news to this young Noble I could see his smile turn to disappointment, you could see in his body language that he was concerned about rerunning the course again.  To my amazement his confidence again began to quickly shine through.  There was never one solitary bad word spoken, he blamed no one, he handled it like a man, probably much better than anyone that was watching.  As he pulled up to that starting line to give it his best shot once again, a sense of pride puffed up in my chest, to see this young guy in his early 20's handle himself so wonderfully under this most difficult situation.  As he ran the course this time, there were cheers from everyone, as everyone now was a part of this young Nobles team.  This is where the real test of an individual has an opportunity to shine thru, this is where the true meaning of the statement "the Shrine makes a good man better" has a chance to prove itself.  As this rider made his way a second time around this challenging course, he proved to me without a doubt, the Shrine of North America does exactly that, it makes good men better.  This rider did the unthinkable, he rode the course twice, and twice he turned in the best time of the day.  As the day progressed and ended his time stood as the best, and earned him first place on this day.

I am proud to know this young Noble and proud to say he is a member of Bahia Shriners.  Thank you Brian Harrelson, and congratulations for showing true sportsmanship, and for once again proving to me how wonderful it is to be a Shriner, to have the opportunity to be around other  men like yourself.  Oh, and congratulations on placing first place, you've made Bahia proud.  Brian along with his father Ken Harrelson turned in the best combined two times to take first place in the team competition as the Iron Horse Unit.  To my knowledge this is the first time in Shrine history a father and son team has ever accomplished this.