Eric Hendrikx is an adopted Torontonian–by way of California–who fell in love with the city after finding love in the city. Now, with over a year and a global pandemic under his belt, Hendrikx’s positive impact on the city is only growing. Driven by his own experiences and inspired by his wife, NKPR’s Natasha Koifman, the writer and motorcycle enthusiast has taken the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride to Toronto and added a grand affair for an important cause.
Meet, Eric Hendrikx
“In 2017, I was involved in a motorcycle accident in the Swiss Alps. I was riding up and down this famous mountain–it has something like 360 really tight turns going up and down. And I made it down the mountain and then on the way back up, I went into a really hard left turn,” he explains. “And up in the Swiss Alps, it’s pretty cold up there. And I think I hit some ice or something and took a tumble and went over the cliff. That landed me in a hospital and in a coma. I ended up spending several months in Switzerland getting some surgeries and things like that to recover.”
“…landed me in a hospital and in a coma. I ended up spending several months in Switzerland getting some surgeries and things like that to recover.”
Eric Hendrkx
The accident left him with head trauma (which made it difficult to read) and a challenging mental space. “I love playing the piano and I was sitting at my piano and my fingers are not doing what my brain is telling them to do. And it’s really upsetting. And regardless of what doctors and therapists tell you, it’s really scary,” Hendrikx says. “You just don’t know if you’re gonna get those abilities back once they’re taken away so quickly. That’s a quick way I can feel people sinking into a dark place.”
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Hendrikx learned later that the Swiss doctors did not expect him to wake up from the coma–they even called his family to tell them to fly to Europe to say their goodbyes. And, when he woke up in critical condition, he turned to his art (Hendrikx is a well-known journalist) and to his family to stay in a positive mindset. “I think I even published something for Rolling Stone from my hospital bed. I think it was a motorcycle story,” he says. “I turned to I turn to creative things that I can actually focus on and try to make connections in my brain with the things that I wanted to be able to continue to do. It was sort of like reconnecting nerves, reconnecting brain signals. That just took a really long time.”
The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride in Toronto
The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride‘s founder, Mark Hawwa, found his inspiration in a photo of Jon Hamm. “There’s this photo of him, dressed dapper on a motorcycle just looking super cool,” Hendrikx explains. “And I think Mark’s vision was to be able to create an organization that supports charity on motorcycles. He wanted to present it in an elevated and inclusive way – having men and women ride classic motorcycles. And dressing dapper was sort of how we wanted to present this charity organization. And so since 2012, it’s grown to be the largest motorcycle event on the planet.”
The support is astounding. “For 2023, we had 106,000 motorcyclists around the world, in almost 900 cities in over 100 countries, all in the same day. Everybody who rides registers and has a fundraising page. So, this year, we’ve raised over 7 million US for 2023, which brings the total up to about 45 million US since 2012,” Hendrikx explains.
“After my accident, in 2019, in Orange County, they named me the Grand Marshal of the ride. And so I led about 2000 motorcyclists down California’s Pacific Coast Highway for the Gentleman’s Ride. And then we hit COVID.”
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In that time frame, Hendrikx met and fell in love with Koifman, using the pandemic to relocate to Toronto. Inspired by his now-wife’s goodness and charity work, he set to work on a Toronto chapter of the ride. “I’ve been fortunate enough to watch her organize and rally people to raise funds and get involved and show up,” he says. “And I’ve adopted a lot of those practices. And I’m trying to implement that for my motorcycle cause.”
Through personal experiences, Hendrikx was driven to help make a difference in the men’s mental health space. “We lose one man to suicide every minute, globally, and that’s half a million men a year that die from suicide,” he says. “I mean, suicide is very complex with the issues and the concerns and the intentions. But we do know that improving overall mental health and helping them establish better social connections can reduce the risk of suicide. We can do better, and that’s where I found my drive to help.”
Hendrikx’s addition: The Distinguished Social Affair
With the ride’s success, Hendrikx looked to build on the initiative. “The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride is an annual global event–we raise funds on behalf of Movember with funds going to prostate cancer but also to men’s mental health initiatives. And, and this is done through motorcycling,” he says. “And it’s a beautiful demonstration of this collective in this group and this, this social function, but it still requires you to get on a motorcycle. And so, going into last year’s event, I wanted to share the experience and the positive activity and the opportunity to support these causes with all my friends and with everyone else who doesn’t necessarily ride motorcycles.”
The result was the Distinguished Social Affair at the Ritz Carlton, complete with a live auction and cocktails and a live DJ. In 2023, Tony Hawk donated some auction items, and a representative from Movember came out to share the impact these sorts of charity events have. The capacity doubled from one year to the next, and Hendrikx hopes the initiative will continue to grow and gain traction. “This event is sort of growing organically, and is being supportive and embraced by a community that cares,” he says.
This year alone, Hendrikx personally raised over $40,000. And he’s just getting started.
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Hope you enjoyed our first feature in our new #UpToGreatness column, featuring inspiring Canadians from coast to coast, starting in our own backyard. Have someone we should keep in mind or get on our radar? Shoot us an email.
