Hundreds of motorcyclists gathered Saturday morning in Blue Springs, Missouri, for a ride honoring Assistant Fire Chief Harold Hollingsworth, a Fort Osage firefighter and Missouri National Guard veteran who died in the line of duty, timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Riders departed the Outlaw Harley-Davidson dealership at 11 a.m. and traveled through Buckner, Napoleon, Wellington and Lexington before concluding at the Branded Outdoor Theater in Richmond.
The event, called the 25th Anniversary 9-11 Tribute to Heroes Ride, drew a massive pack of Harley-Davidson motorcycles and raised funds for people lost in the line of duty, according to KCTV. Organizer Kyle Harrison said organizers thanked first responders, bikers and everyone involved in pulling off the event, which the station reports took a full year to plan. Registration for the day included a $5 pancake breakfast, and the morning’s events featured a blessing of the bikes before riders hit the road.
A Chief Remembered by Family and Fellow Firefighters
Hollingsworth was an assistant fire chief with the Fort Osage Fire Protection District when he died on April 7, 2013, after his department vehicle slid off the road and struck a tree during a severe thunderstorm while he was responding to a structure fire in rural Jackson County, according to FireRescue1. He was 47 years old. The crash marked the first line-of-duty death in the history of the Fort Osage Fire Protection District, which covers 110 square miles across northeastern Jackson County and operates three stations serving Buckner, Levasy, Sibley, River Bend and surrounding rural areas, per Fort Osage Fire Protection District records.
Hollingsworth had built a long record of public service before his death. He began his military service in 1986 with the Missouri Army National Guard’s 110th Combat Engineers and spent 16 years with Fort Osage as a firefighter and paramedic before being promoted to assistant chief in 2010, according to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation also honors Hollingsworth…