Stepping in to help Beckett and Keith Pittman, who sustained serious back injuries when his dozier slid off rails and overturned in July, to defray some of the costs of medical expenses was the Blue Steel Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club of NC.

Beckett and Pittman split a total of $1,000, a combination of funds raised from a November 7 softball tournament and a donation from Tracy Story, owner of Discount Tire, who also runs the Community Softball League, in which the Fall Brawl Battle of the Bats tournament was played under.

Beckett's wife, Katherine, had the stroke September 23. “She's doing better,” he said Wednesday evening before the checks were presented to him and Pittman. “She's in rehabilitation.”

Two weeks later he would learn his daughter, Belinda Kaye Beckett, had been found dead in the area of Simmons and Craig streets.

The news occurred as Mr. Beckett was preparing to take his wife to Greenville.

“It's hard,” Mr. Beckett, a member of the motorcycle club, said. “I've got do what I've got to do.”

He was appreciative of the donation. “I'm thankful for it, of everybody doing what they're doing. I'm thankful my club is behind me. They're a wonderful bunch of guys. It's a wonderful club and I love being a member and I'm thankful they were there when I needed them.”

Roy Ball, North Carolina chapter president and a Roanoke Rapids police officer, said the club was started August of 2013 as a charitable organization. “We're just basically trying to do what we can to help anyone we can try to help.”

For Pittman, there has been an outpouring since his July 30 mishap. “I'm happy to be here,” he said. “It means a lot.”

More information on the club can be obtained by calling Ball at 252-326-0565.