Only three or four times a year does Tom White, one of the founding brothers of White Brothers Performance, open his private museum collection of classic motorcycles as a fundraiser known throughout the industry as Bikes and Burgers Night.

The fundraiser is for a unique rehabilitation center, High Hopes Head Injury Program, which specializes in therapy for patients of severe head trauma and brain injuries.

Each person who attends Bikes and Burgers Night is asked to make a $20 donation in exchange for a mouthwatering charbroiled cheeseburger and a self-guided tour of the museum.

Some folks are known to donate more than the minimum requested for the experience.

Close to home

On Feb. 23, 1997, near sunset, White’s young adult son Brad was play riding on his minibike in a parking lot near their new warehouse when he rode into a chain stretched between two poles to block off another parking lot.

This crushed his windpipe and larynx, cutting off the flow of oxygen to his brain and ability to breathe.

"Basically, it was like a drowning," White announced to approximately 80 of his museum guests. "In the hospital Brad’s heart stopped for 14 minutes. For the first two weeks that he was in the hospital we didn’t know if he was going to live or die.

"God, I pray that this happens to no others. We modified our home and hired our own 24-7 caregivers. We brought Brad home on the 94th day.

"Thankfully, due to the success of White Brothers, I was able to borrow some money against the company to afford all of this."

Mark Desmond, the founder of High Hopes, thanked White for putting on yet another great event.

"Brain injuries are pretty catastrophic. In California we have over 22,000 cases annually of which 50 percent are fatalities," stated Desmond. "In the United States the numbers total to over 1.2 million.

"In our rehabilitation program it’s great to see people do things that they weren’t supposed to do because of the brain injury.

"I used to coach swimming for US Olympians. [The High Hopes patients] work as hard as any gold medalist that I’ve seen."

White added, "Most of the people who are lucky enough to get into the High Hopes program all have some form of scholarship because a lifetime of living with a severe brain injury can add up to over seven million dollars."

High Hopes was the first private nonprofit organization formed in the country to exclusively serve the needs of the head-injured and their families.

The nonprofit charity also functions as a full-service day treatment program dedicated to helping the brain-injured with their recoveries.

A beautiful evening

White showed several videos on three flat-screen TVs, one on the history of the museum, another a short documentary about High Hopes and the last an epic tribute to the famous riders who used to be with us on this planet.

The collection described

Brian Farnsworth of Huntington Beach said, "This is probably the finest collection of early motocross bikes in the United States from the 1960s and 1970s.

"My favorite bike has got to be the BSA. That’s where I got my start in the industry. I worked there for six years when I was younger."

World record holder Sam Wheeler, who went 355 mph on two wheels on a motorcycle at Bonneville Salt Flats, said, "Tom has so much love for everyone and everything he does. He’s a real family man – a real man. He doesn’t give up under any circumstances. He gains strength from adversity."

"It’s wonderful that Tom’s able to open his museum to friends of friends of friends and raise money and awareness for High Hopes," chimed in Don Dudek of Long Beach. "This is a real beauty and it’s very nice that he can do this."

"Tom and I used to race at Ascot together starting in 1968 and I worked at Yamaha for 40 years," Dudek recalled.

"As a private collector, to purchase the bikes that he has on display in this museum is phenomenal," said Jody Weisel. "Some of these bikes are worth over $50,000. And to open it up to the people to see them is mind-boggling. That’s like opening up your house to the public.

"Tom and I used to race MX scrambles back in the 1960s. I wanted to do road racing, so I asked Tom about crashing. He said, ‘Don’t worry. You only crash once in a road race. You’ll never do it again.’"

Mark Porter has been working at Yamaha since 1973. "I’ve been riding motocross since 1967," he said. "I got to see the sport of motocross start and it’s kind of cool to the evolution of MX.

"Some of [the museum’s] bikes are one-off productions that somehow he’s gotten from the factories, and they’re restored perfectly. This collection is unbelievable.

"Tom has his heart into this collection. His life and soul is into preserving the history of MX. Without people like him, there wouldn’t be a collection like this to share with future generations."

Chris Nee of Valencia commented, "I like the floor. It’s nice. I’ve seen some bikes here that I’ve never heard of. What a touching story [White] has with his son."

"This is a brilliant cross section of history, well preserved with perfect attention to detail," observed Tony Martorelli of Moorpark.

"I’ve been here before," said Scott Highland of Whittier. "Like most people, I was a kid in 1973 when I got bit by the bug to go ride a dirt bike. I was too young back then to do so. What impresses me is the fact that I get to see in person the same bikes that I used to drool over that I saw in the magazines."

Jeff Kiehl of Whittier said, "I’ve been into MX since the first race I went to back in 1978. I even worked at White Brothers right after Tom sold it, I’d have to say around 2002 or 2003."

"Most of this collection is from when I was growing up," said Ross Maeda of Fountain Valley. "It’s pretty amazing the fine condition these bikes are in. They’re like brand new."

Chris Real of Upland summed it up: "My take? I’ve worked in the motorcycle industry my entire working career that began in 1976.

"It’s interesting what the pioneers of the sport have done. They took somebody else’s machine and improved them using somebody else’s passion. These machines are a representation of true mechanical passion.

"This is not a sport. Actually, it’s an addiction.

"After watching the video on the legends my thoughts were, ‘None of us get out alive.’ I just lost a very close friend last April, Bruce Olgivie.

"We watch them up on the screen and how the industry sees us as ‘mechanical people.’ In reality we’re families with lots of innovation and passion."

To learn more about the High Hopes Head Injury Program, visit www.highhopes.ws. To learn more about Tom White, visit www.earlyyearsofmx.com.

To view all 370 photos taken by Dave Parker at Bikes and Burgers Night, visit www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thumbpage.aspx?e=4770040.