Riding through Grief, Raising Funds for Heart Health

There are many things Hastings' Eric Norlander didn't expect would happen this year: He didn't expect his father would die suddenly of a heart attack; he didn't expect he'd learn how to reconstruct a Harley Davidson motorcycle from scratch; he didn't expect he'd ride it from New York to Daytona Beach, Florida...

And he certainly didn't expect to be featured on a documentary that follows seven people engaging in projects so ambitious they're practically destined to fail.

But all those things did happen. 

Norlander, who works for Consumer Reports, was sitting at his desk when he received the call last summer that his father had died. His dad was only 63. 

"It's a call you never want to receive, a call you'll never forget," Norlander said. 

After his father retired, Norlander encouraged him to learn more about motorcycles. His father had always been a "Harley aficionado," and—Norlander said—"There's something about riding motorcycles that makes you want to learn more about them. It's not like driving a car; you're right on top of the engine, connected to it almost."

Despite his grief, Norlander decided he would pursue his ide to learn more about motorcycles—even if it had to be on his own. 

It was around that time that Norlander saw an advertisement calling for applications for people to be featured in Morgan Spurlock's newest web-based series on Yahoo! screen called "Failure Club."

"I think the series' name comes from two different ideas," Norlander said. "First, people often don't push themselves to try new things because they're afraid to fail. This series challenges that human tendency."

Secondly, the show pushes its subjects to reach so far in their endeavors that it's almost impossible to succeed. "Basically, they're making the point that if you shoot for the moon, you may make it only half-way to the moon—but that's still a lot further than if you shoot for Hackensack. You may actually make it there—but you'll still only be in Hackensack."

Norlander had no expectation of even getting called back for the show; he didn't even tell his wife Meredith he'd applied. But after multiple interviews and a screen test, Norlander realized it might become a reality.

"We're not the sort of people who are generally picked for this sort of thing," he said. "So once they found out, my family was really grateful for the opportunity."

Norlander was also proud to be able to do something publicly in his father's name. "This is all a tribute to him," he said.

Originally, the project was just to strip down and reconstruct a Harley Davidson with a larger and more powerful engine. But, given that the show's called "Failure Club," producers pushed Norlander to take it even further.

Besides building the bike, he will ride it with a few of his dad's friends to Daytona Beach, FL this summer; they hope to arrive on August 20, the day his father would have turned 65. 

The motorcycle will be painted to symbolize Norlander's relationship with his father. Splashes of red will represent his father's 9th-degree black belt in Karate, which is actually red. The base color for the bike is white because, "When you start out in Karate, your belt is white. I feel like I'm a white belt in this whole process," Norlander said.

He also picked the white because–as a huge comic book fan—Norlander associates white with "the good guys."

Another way Failure Club's producers have pushed Norlander is to encourage him to make the two- week ride—one week down and one week back—into a fundraiser for the American Heart Association to help raise money for heart disease research, prevention and treatment. 

Norlander is collecting sponsorships for the ride, making the tribute to his father's memory even deeper.

In the months that he's worked with the employees of Circle Cycle—the shop in which his father got his Harley repaired—Norlander said he's forged a strong bond with everyone there.

"When you lose someone very close, you can either curl up and cut yourself off from ever making new connections; or you can forge new friendships—even knowing the risk of losing people—and appreciate those connections even more while you have them," Norlander said.

He has taken the latter route.

Norlander hopes that his storyline on the show will touch people who are also grieving, but who don't yet have outlets for that sadness.

"I hope they feel a kinship to my grief, but also my motivation, and feel inspired to go out and do something in their loved ones' names," he said.

More than anything, though, Norlander is proud to have the opportunity to let people know "how good a guy" his father was.

A working class man, Norlander's father was smart, "but he spent his life under the radar."

"I think there are some many people out there with hidden depths," Norlander said. "I think there needs to be more stories about them—more stories about the good people making smaller-scale differences in the world."

Seven of Norlander's episodes have already aired on Yahoo! You can watch the latest one here.

You can also sponsor Norlander's trip by sending gas cards or meal cards to:

Warrior Poets Production
c/o Eric Norlander
407 Broome Street
Suite 7B
New York, NY 10013

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