Bikers Giving Back

By PAUL DAILING

Jan 14, 2008 --

With his shaved head, tattoos, leather jacket, and Harley, Dean “Bull” Akey looks like a stereotypical bad-boy biker from a 1980s movie.  “I won’t say I would be a traditional insurance agent,” Akey said, laughing.

He doesn’t look like a typical rescue worker, either.  Akey, 41, who is, in fact, an insurance agent, is the founder of two groups that let motorcyclists give back to the community.  He lives in Batavia with his wife, Eileen, 39, and children, Clay, 12, and Emma, 8. 

One of Akey’s groups is the Rescue Riders.

The group pairs with the Kane County Medical Reserve Corps to help out in case of emergency.

The group was the brainchild of Reserve Corps Coordinator Patrick DeMoon.

DeMoon, 65, a retired hospital administrator, said he was originally thinking about contacting groups of bicyclists to help out in emergencies that close roads.

“Then I thought even harder about it and there were places even the bicycles couldn’t go,” DeMoon said.

Then, DeMoon saw a newspaper article about Biker4Biker, the other group Akey runs. DeMoon contacted Akey and the Rescue Riders were born.

The 25 to 30 bikers have been trained to perform some medical services – CPR and the like – to free up doctors, nurses and EMTs in case of an emergency.

“The nurse is a medical professional. We are not medical professionals so how can we empower them to go where they’re most effective?” Akey said. “We kind of look at ourselves as the support services for the true first responders.”



The motorcycles can be a plus, as two-wheeled vehicles can sometimes go where four-wheeled ones can’t.

“We could be riding up and down, in case of an emergency, on the sidewalks for example,” Akey said.

Although the group went through a drill in November, going from point to point after a “disaster” that closed Randall Road, Route 64 and other major roads, the first real-world test came last month.

In the wake of the possible hepatitis A exposure at a Geneva restaurant, the health department needed to deliver some immunoglobulin shots to Chicago, but didn’t want to pull a nurse from the line.

Rescue Rider Tom Rasmussen, a 44-year-old Realtor from St. Charles, was tapped to deliver the shots. The trip was more about the response time than the bike, he said.



“It was 20 degrees outside. I was in the car,” Rasmussen said, laughing. “I wish it was nice.”

Later this month, the group will be featured in the national Medical Reserve Corps newsletter as an example to reserve corps across the nation.

“We are putting it out in our first national newsletter as an example of ways units of the Medical Reserve Corps can work with groups outside the medical or health community,” said Grace Middleton, public information office for the national corps.



Akey also leads Biker4Biker, a group of bikers who put on fundraisers for other biker families in need.

Biker4Biker got its start after Akey attended an event for biker Lance Halsey of Cortland, who was killed in a motorcycle accident last June. Akey discovered Halsey did not have life insurance and the family was in dire financial straits.

“I thought somebody ought to do something to help these people out and that’s how this whole thing started,” Akey said.

Biker4Biker has since raised $20,000 for Halsey’s family and another $25,000 for other biker families in need, Akey said.



“Bikers are, by nature, fairly philanthropic people and they’ll come out for other bikers,” he said.

The group is planning another fundraiser for April, though the recipients have not been named.

“What we’re going to do is go to one of the folks who have already contacted us or someone who contacts us in the mean time and choose who we’re going to do it for,” Akey said. “We may do it for a couple of families.”



Not every biker family facing tragedy will be considered, Akey said, adding that if he were in an accident, for example, he would not qualify as he has life insurance.

“While it’s no less tragic, there’s no reason for people to raise money for me,” Akey said.

For his work with the two groups, Akey has been nominated for a Fox River chapter of the American Red Cross Hometown Heroes award.



“As I look at the other people who are responding and it’s sort of a ‘Wayne’s World’ thing. I don’t feel worthy,” Akey said.

But one important question remains. Why the nickname “Bull?”

“I’m a big hunter and I was rammed by a bull [bison] on horseback in Montana,” Akey said, laughing. “He didn’t want to be hunted.”