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OCC Motorcycle Raffle Winning Ticket Pulled July 4, 2011

On Monday, July 4, VVA Chapter 47 held the long awaited drawing for the winning ticket for the custom Orange County Chopper.

With the assistance of Jon Hemp, Co-Founder, Feed the Dawgs, Chapter 47 invited Daniel Blasjo, a Gold Star father to draw the winning ticket. Daniel's son, Sgt Aaron J. Blasjo from Riverside, CA, a US Army Special Forces K-9 handler was killed along with his military working dog, Hunter, and two other Special Forces soldiers on 29 May 2011, in Wardak Province, Afghanistan in an IED attack on their Humvee.

The winning ticket belonged John Hodges, a Vietnam veteran. John, a Vietnam veteran and two co-workers, Lonny Grant, a post Vietnam Marine Corps veteran and George Archibald pooled their funds to purchase tickets in the raffle. The three winners are employees of Stater Bros. and work at the Distribution Center in San Bernardino. Steve Mackey, President of VVA Chapter 47 met with the winners to present them with the key to the motorcycle and get pictures in front of the Stater Bros. Headquarters.

Below are the photo of Dan Blasjo pulling the winning raffle ticket outside the Auto Club Speedway grandstands during the Red, White and Cruise event on July 4 (top), Steve Mackey presenting the key to the Orange County Chopper to John Hodges as Lonny Grant (standing) and George Archibald (sitting on bike) look on (middle) and the winners (Lonny Grant, John Hodges and George Archibald) in front of the logo emblazoned trailer used to transport the motorcycle (bottom).

Congratulations to the winners!