THE LOCAL LIFE

terry gray

Director, Dare County Motorsports Charity Group Commissioner, Town of Kill Devil Hills

STORY BY AMELIA BOLDAJI / PHOTO BY LORI DOUGLAS

AN ENGINE REVS, AND TERRY GRAY LEANS COMFORTABLY against his Harley-Davidson as he settles in for the next question. From his decadeslong career with the North Carolina Department of Transportation to several terms as a Kill Devil Hills commissioner, and his longstanding nonprofit work with the Dare County Motorsports Charity Group – much of which played a part in earning him the 2019 Dare County Citizen of the Year award – Terry’s a well-known fixture both on the road and in the boardroom. But whether he’s holding meetings or motorcycle runs, one thing’s certain: He’s always there to lend a hand for his community.

What is it that draws you to community service? I did a lot of community things as I was growing up in Nags Head and Wanchese, and one of the people who inspired me the most was my grandfather. He had a saying: If you don’t give back, you ain’t going to get back. He cared, and his whole thing was just making sure people were looked after – it always impressed me. That was why, when I first ran for office, I put my phone number out there. I wanted to be accessible if someone had a problem; I wanted them to pick up the phone and call me.

How did you get involved with organizing annual motorcycle toy runs? Brian Mervine and his wife started the motorcycle runs around 2001 at Vertigo Tattoo in order to benefit the underprivileged kids in Dare County at Christmas. The runs began at the Aycock Brown Welcome Center, and they’d ride all the way down the beach road to Vertigo in November – but that meant that they were subject to some bad weather. After a while he stopped, but in May of 2016 a bunch of us were sitting around and someone said, ‘Terry, you’ve got the biggest mouth – go find out why they’re not doing it anymore.’ So I went to see Brian, and he looked at me, and looked at his property, and said, ‘Do what you want to do.’ It was a display of generosity, and here we are five years later.

Has the charity group work evolved over these past few years? In 2016 we did our first September run with about 130 bikes, and we raised $14,000 for Christmas between toys and entry fees. That November we made the effort to become a nonprofit foundation, and as we grew, we began fine tuning. Now we have two events: A toy run in September and a three-day gathering in April during bike week. In 2018 we also started using funds from the rally to establish three scholarships for select graduating seniors at each of the local high schools based on academics and financial need. We don’t tout the numbers out that much, but overall, we had about a 300-percent increase in the money raised between last year and our first year.

What do you think has made the charity group so successful? For starters, we’ve expanded what we do to much more than just the Christmas toy runs, and we get everyone involved. We were pretty smart in how we set things up, too, and we reversed the runs so we start at Vertigo and finish things up at a different restaurant each year with events to generate community involvement. We even have a $1,000 poker run with a score sheet and card pick-ups at seven stops…though the person with the best hand usually gives the money back. In the end, everything just raises more money for the kids – and that’s what it’s all about.

Mile 9.5