Behind the Handlebars Host Tony "Pan" Sanfelipo interviews Lenny Young of ABATE of PA about his involvement in ABATE of WI's annual lobby day at the Wisconsin State Capitol.

Tony Sanfelipo: Tony Pan, Behind the Handlebars with Hupy and Abraham. I’m here with a special guest we have for today’s lobby day, Lenny Young from ABATE of Pennsylvania.

Lenny Young: Hi there. Glad to be here.

Tony Sanfelipo: So, how did you know about our event today?

Lenny Young: Well, I’ve been a four year member. I joined with Meeting of the Minds when it was here in 2015. I get the monthly newsletter, love following you guys and ABATE of Pennsylvania similarly were able to get modification to the helmet law and were very active in Pennsylvania. We’re actually known in PA as the premier grassroots organization in Pennsylvania. 

Tony Sanfelipo: I’m actually very familiar with your organization. I’ve been there for a couple of state seminars, I forgot what you call them.

Lenny Young: We call it the L and L. The leadership and legislative seminar. 

Tony Sanfelipo: Right. I was actually introduced there and I was able to speak at one of your forums anyhow. 

Lenny Young: I remember when you were there.

Tony Sanfelipo: Oh you do? Okay, good.

Lenny Young: Oh yeah, I’ve been a long time member. 

Tony Sanfelipo: You guys worked hard to defeat your mandatory helmet law but it finally came.

Lenny Young: The stars were lined up. The moon was in the right phase and it just happened. We’ve had it for years:

Tony Sanfelipo: And what year was that? 

Lenny Young: 2003. Yeah. I’m a 39 Year member myself. I wasn’t real active until after the helmet law was modified and I guess just because I’m sort of a non-conformist, as a lot of members sort of said “Oh, we’ve achieved our objectives,” I stepped up. I became the president of my chapter, went on to become a district representative, board of directors now and I just love it. It’s a great organization. We’ve got about 6,000 members now.

Tony Sanfelipo: Well I met your organization through Joe Dickey, who’s passed away now, but I have to give out a shout to Charlie Ummenhauer and I don’t know if Rick Gray is still active out there. Well, welcome to Wisconsin. I hope you enjoy. You’re going to sit in on the meeting that I’m going to be at. 

Lenny Young: And one of the other reasons I’m here is my son and two granddaughters live about ten minutes away from here. I don’t get to see them too much so I figure a couple days with them and one day with you guys, that’s a good vacation.

Tony Sanfelipo: Well Lenny, thanks for coming here. We hope you enjoy this experience and bring some of this knowledge back to Pennsylvania. 

Lenny Young: Honored to be here with you guys. Great Group.

Tony Sanfelipo: Tony Pan, Behind the Handlebars, Hupy and Abraham.