On Sunday, Sept. 26, the Yonkers Motorcycle Club (YMC) became forever enshrined in the Motorcyclepedia Museum in Newburgh.

In attendance at the event were Ted Doering, co-founder of the museum, Yonkers Motorcycle Club president Jack O’Malley, Yonkers Motorcycle Club historian and treasurer Keith May, and members of the club with their families and friends.

O’Malley began the celebration of the club’s enshrinement by sharing a few words with the crowd and recognizing May for the work that he had done in preparing for the day. Without May’s contributions and work, this day could not have been possible. O’Malley presented an award to May from the club for his dedication to the project and the club.

May then made his way to the podium and shared his words of thanks and appreciation for the club’s trust in taking on this project. Furthermore, his research has led to a large collection of a variety of YMC memorabilia and artifacts that will now be included in the museum display.

Jean Lara, president of the board of trustees for the museum, said that even during the pandemic, the museum space remained open due to other services being run out of the same building, yet still maintaining guidelines and protocols. Her hope is that going forward, people will become connected to the history that is offered in the museum and that people will remember their experience going forward.

Joining the staff at the museum, Oliver Janvier says his collaboration with Doering pushes him more each day to get the job done, but more importantly, to bring this museum and the work itself to the community.

“Once I saw his (Ted) passion and care about the community itself, then I knew the type of person that he was,” Janvier said. “Then it started to teach me, that there is a lot of people that still have, they still have hope in Newburgh to see it progress more and more.”

Future projects for the museum are promoting more events to the public and collaborating with the local community school districts to bring students in and educate them about the bikes and other machinery.

To learn more about Motorcyclepedia, visit motorcyclepediamuseum.org.