The fourth annual memorial motorcycle ride for Josh Wilterdink will be on Saturday, August 10, starting at Blackwater Junction Restaurant in Cilleyville. Josh graduated from MVHS in June, 2009 and passed away less than two months later after a car accident on his way home from work at the Country Club of New Hampshire.

Born a picturesque New Hampshirite, although born in Connecticut, Josh Wilterdink pushed his way to the rural ease of Andover with a work ethic and practical mindset that defined him as the outgoing and determined kid he was.

Along with an easy smile and a “joker” personality, he was a boy full of dreams, and yet, a successful one, having convinced his parents to move up here as soon as his sister graduated high school, persuading them to let him raise pigs and chickens in the backyard, and pushing himself towards the pinnacle status of the Boy Scouts, earning his Eagle badge by age 15.

While some of his aspirations were left unlived (he hoped to attend NHTI and someday open a bar and grill), the last two years of his life were lived with contagious fervor. Having escaped suburban Connecticut and surrounded by the beckoning outdoors, Josh lived in his element – camping, hiking, skiing, and fishing constantly. This passion for wilderness came with “a deep connection with animals,” his father, Rob, says, something that seemed even “uncanny” at times.

As organic as he was, he also had a zeal for mechanics, designing a Gilligan’s Island pedal-for-power bike at a 2004 science fair, as well as a functioning potato launcher. Naturally, this mechanical teenage boy’s mind eventually turned towards motorcycling, and, with characteristic influence, got permission from his parents. The catch: he had to drive a scooter first.

Undismayed, he wasted no time in “modifying it,” something his mother, Robin, recalls with warm laughter. “I’d be driving 45 mph, and when I’d look in the rearview mirror I’d see him right on my bumper.”

After a year of driving, a clean record, and a little over a thousand dollars saved up, Josh swooped in on a bargain ‘94 Suzuki Intruder, a source of continued passion for him.

Nothing, however, was he more enthusiastic about than his family. They would ride together every weekend, and he even convinced his grandma to buy a Can-Am so she could come along. “He always wanted us to be with each other, to do stuff together,” Rob says, “He had a heart of gold.”

Four Years Later

While it’s been four years since the accident, Robin insists “you never get better, you get stronger.” With the motorcycle ride and the charity money, though, they hope to keep doing good in response to tragedy. “I don’t go a day without thinking about him,” says Rob, “so we do this ride for three reasons: in remembrance and respect, to raise money to benefit kids, and for the fellowship. That’s what it’s all about.”

Although they prefer a caravan of 50 motorcyclists at the most, the potential for a larger group of commemorators would be “a good problem to have … the more the merrier.” Unlike most rides, the Wilterdinks have designed it, with the help of local and surrounding police departments, to keep the ride on a steady pace, with no stops. “We never put our feet down.”

The memorial ride starts in Andover, then roars in commemoration through Danbury, Canaan, Rumney, Plymouth, and Bristol, ending at the Bristol House of Pizza around noon for a pizza lunch provided by the Wilterdink family, a cost they pay from their own wallets, not from proceeds.

Registration at Blackwater Junction Restaurant in Cilleyville starts at 9:15 AM, and the motorcycle ride begins at 10 AM. The suggested donation is $25 per bike, but you don’t have to ride to donate.

The money goes to the Josh Wilterdink Memorial Campership Fund, Boy Scouts of America, 571 Holt Avenue, Manchester 03109 and will help any New Hampshire Boy Scout in need go to summer camp in New Hampshire.

Applications go straight to Boy Scouts of America in Manchester so that, as Rob puts it, “when we pass on, it can still do good.”

For more information, contact Josh’s parents: Rob Wilterdink at 657-4456 or Robin Wilterdink at 657-4455.