Local biker club rides to the rescue again

A Columbia Falls biker club, the Dysfunctional Cowboys, has come to the rescue of another mobile homeowner.

Last fall, the group helped Anthony Walters and his 16-year-old daughter Michaela after their mobile home behind the Blue Moon Nite Club was completely destroyed in a Sept. 14, 2013, fire.

This time they came to the assistance of Columbia Falls resident Alfreda Piland, whose roof began leaking last year. Several rooms in her mobile home were almost completely ruined from the water.

Everywhere she turned, Piland couldn’t get the help she needed. Consigned to a wheelchair with multiple sclerosis, Piland, 65, thought she might have to move from her home on North Hilltop Road.

“I kept telling people this is a river, not a tiny drip, drip, drip,” she said. “I called umpteen dozen people and everyone turned me down.”

Then Piland called the Flathead County Agency on Aging. The agency’s Senior Mobile Home Repair Program helps repair trailer homes for seniors across the valley.

The program has provided donated money, time and manpower to 210 individuals since its inception in 2005, but replacing an entire roof was a little more challenging.

Jim Atkinson, former director of the Agency on Aging and now the coordinator for the mobile home program, said it took a while to approve the funds for Piland. He contacted Western Building Center and Plum Creek, who were willing to donate supplies.

What was still needed was manpower. Luckily for Piland, her son-in-law Joe Leone had a few friends who were willing to help — his biker club, the Dysfunctional Cowboys.

“I kept trying to get everybody else to do it and ultimately Joe volunteered his time,” Piland said. “Now every night, after they get off work, two or three come out here to work on the roof.”

Piland’s Social Security checks barely get her to the next month, so she can’t afford to pay the bikers, but they continue to work.

“Their motto is family, loyalty, respect,” Piland said. “These guys are wonderful, beautiful people. Not all biker clubs are mean and nasty. I’m elated and so grateful and so thankful.”

The roof should be finished by the end of September, she said, ideally before the heaviest rains come through. Other work, including replacing drywall and flooring, will continue.

To find out more about the Senior Mobile Home Repair Program, call the Flathead County Agency on Aging at 758-5370.