Siobhan McAndrew

smcandrew@rgj.com

It doesn’t matter that the chopper Lennah Martinez rides doesn’t go as fast as a Harley.

Lennah, 4, has officially become part of the Northern Nevada motorcycle community even though her wheels are a specially-designed bicycle.

Local motorcycle club, Mestizos MC, is raising money for an intensive physical therapy program for the little girl, who was diagnosed with Cerebral palsy when she was 6 months old.

Bikers from Northern Nevada are embracing Lennah and her family by raising money to send the little girl who can’t walk, sit or eat on her own to PolFit Wellness in Orange County, California.

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Lennah Loves Life Benefit Bash

What: Family friendly benefit to raise money for therapy for Lennah Martinez. Area bikers to compete against each other in competitions including a slow ride and moped toss. Silent auction and raffle items available.

When: Noon Saturday

Where: Alturas Bar & Night Club at 1044 E 4th Street, Reno

Details: www.gofundme.com/LennahLovesLife

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The March trip will be the second round of the four-week intensive therapy program for Lennah. The program isn't covered by the family's insurance.

“We want to give her everything we can,” said mom Ashleigh Martinez, who knew coming up with the thousands to pay for the program would be tough, even with her husband working a second job.

After a visit to the program last year, Lennah showed incredible improvement and realized things her body could do such as going through the motions to walk. Saying, “Hi,” and riding a bike are new skills they credit to the program.

Martinez said recently a well-meaning store clerk recently said to Lennah as she sat in her wheelchair, “I wish I could be pushed around all day.”

Martinez ignored the comment but was frustrated. She said Lennah watches her younger sister, Truby, run to her father's arms when he comes home from work at night.

Martinez wants Lennah to be able to do the same thing.

Martinez said she and her husband hope Lennah will someday walk, but hopes this new therapy will help the little girl learn sit on her own so she can be like the other kids at preschool who sit on the floor together during story time.

“Maybe that feeling of independence and the wind in your hair is something bikers understand,” Lennah’s dad, Misael Martinez said. “That’s all we really want for our little girl.”

Raising money for Lennah is one of dozens of fundraising efforts, many times done quietly, by motorcycle clubs in Northern Nevada. Put on by one bike group, bikers from different clubs support each other.

“There is a huge misconception about bikers being lawbreaking, gang members,” said Shelly Faulkner, a member of the Northern Nevada Confederation of Clubs, an organization and lobbying group of 38 biker groups including the one organizing Saturday’s fundraiser.

The group meets monthly to address laws and legislation affecting bikers but also to work together to help those in need.

One of its more well-known fundraisers is to collect toys during the holidays. Since 2000, motorcycle clubs in the area have donated to needy children more than $500,000 in cash and toys at Christmas.

On Thursday, Misael Martinez will talk in front of the monthly meeting of the Northern Nevada Confederation of Clubs.

He will talk about his daughter, who was born with in 2011 with Gastroschisis, a birth defect where intestines are outside of the abdominal wall.

He said a stroke during one of the surgeries likely caused Cerebral palsy, which is has affected their daughter’s ability to reach the same milestones as other children her age.

Faulkner, who works for the Washoe County School District during the day, works at Alturas Bar at night, the site of Saturday’s afternoon fundraiser for Lennah.

“People always ask me if working in a biker bar is scary, until they come here,” she said. “This community lives by different rules that are about respecting your community.”

Faulkner has organized an Easter basket drive for needy children for the last 13 years.

“When I see these burly bikers with big Easter bunnies on their bike, I want everyone to realize we are all too fast to judge a book by its cover,” Faulkner said.

That goes for a tough biker like Lennah, too.

Recently, she ran over her mother’s right foot on her trike.

“I had a bruise,” Ashleigh Martinez said, adding “that I was proud of for week.”