Strathmore riders join hundreds to rally for young boy

By Miriam Ostermann, Associate Editor

Eight members of the recently established local Guardians of the Children (GOC) chapter jumped on their motorcycles – with a toy in hand – and joined 200 club members, other organizations and even Batman in Calgary on Saturday, to celebrate the birthday of a five-year-old boy who lost his father just days before.
The president of the Strathmore chapter, who goes by his road name Chico, heard about a young mother who was looking for members of the public to provide her son, Sayber, with love and support during his birthday party celebrations after her ex-boyfriend and the child’s father took his own life last Tuesday.
Chico took to social media to gather more involvement and was soon contacted by the president of Alberta Advantage Outfitters. The company donated an all-paid fishing weekend for Sayber and his mother Chelsea Belland.
With donation in hand, a motorcycle toy in the other and accompanied by eight chapter members, Chico made his way to the Canadian Tire parking lot in in Shawnessy in Calgary. Once there, he watched as Sayber was met with the sight of over 200 motorcycles, several families and even a Batman impersonator complete with the Batmobile.
“At one point everyone decided to sing happy birthday and I broke down,” said Chico. “It was so overwhelming. I was so happy with joy, it was so powerful having 200 people sing happy birthday to this boy who lost his father and everybody is there for him.
“I’m so proud that we could help. Sure, they’re not in Strathmore, but you know what happens when we don’t have boundaries, we go wherever; if there is a need for help for a child, we’ll go.”
Twenty-two-year-old Belland met Bryton Winters when she was only 14 years old, and he was 16. While the relationship was plagued with physical, emotional and substance abuse, Belland said Winters’s love and commitment to their son, who was born two years later, never wavered.
According to Belland – who herself was forced to leave the home and spiralled down a path that at times left her homeless and vulnerable – Winters struggled with growing up in a family dealing with alcoholism and was taken in by the mother of a former girlfriend who became a stabilizing force in his life and a grandmother for Sayber.
Yet on Aug. 14, just two weeks after Sayber’s fifth birthday and four days before his birthday party, Belland, who has been separated from Winters for the past three years and turned her life around for her fiancé, son and infant daughter, received a devastating phone call from Winters’s guardian.
“Bryton has struggled with everything his whole life, his family was never there to support him and I really feel like he felt that he was completely alone; but he was the last person I expected would take his own life,” she said. “Because of the shared custody, we both wanted time to celebrate his birthday with him. I just wanted people around him. I needed to have my boy loved and feel like he’s supported because he literally feels that he’s always abandoned and left.”
While Sayber knows the truth about his father’s passing, the reality continues to be an ongoing struggle for Belland and her son.
While Belland said the separation from Winters and her past experiences left her with social anxiety, the event proved to be therapeutic for her as well.
“I became a really big hermit. With everything I had been through I stay home, and I really started to hate people, but this event really changed a lot of that,” she said. “I just wanted my son to feel some love and have a good day because he deserves it, especially after this. We are both very lost.”
Guardians of the Children is a motorcycle riders organization dedicated to protecting victims of child abuse and providing support for children and families. The chapter in Strathmore was founded in January and since then has recruited nearly a dozen members. Chico is waiting on patches and vests for his members to then truly focus on making an impact in Strathmore and surrounding areas in the near future.