BUILD PROGRAM COMES TO BROOKFIELD Students, Mentors to Partner with Hal’s Harley in Annual Motorcycle Building and Scholarship Competition

The BUILD Moto Mentoring and Scholarship Program kicked off their 2014 competition this week at Hal’s Harley Davidson in New Berlin. The competition includes the first ever team of students from the Brookfield/New Berlin area. Students and Mentors met this week at Hal’s to start work on a motorcycle building program and competition that will culminate with an award presentation at the Iron Horse Hotel June 5th in Milwaukee.

“These kids are going to make that pile of rusted parts into a race bike” said Joe Haupt, lead mentor of the Brookfield/New Berlin team pointing to a 40-50 year-old, partially assembled Honda 350 in the service department at Hal’s. “We’ll start with a frame and then gather parts from wherever we can find them. It’s our job (the mentors) is to guide these kids in the design and building of a bike that is not only race worthy but a “show quality” motorcycle …and we’re going to do it in 100 days.”

Entering its fourth year, BUILD is an after-school program that connects local high school students, faculty advisors and a group of skilled mentors for the opportunity to learn vintage motorcycle restoration while developing important business, trade and interpersonal skills. The Brookfield/New Berlin team will compete with teams from Bradley Tech High School, Shorewood High School and The Runnin’ Rebels of Milwaukee.

The Brookfield/New Berlin team was given a spot in the Service Department at Hal’s for the design and completion of the bike. Team members include students Robert D’Amato, Mitch Boombalatta, and Gabe Haupt of Brookfield East High School as well as Brett Mueller of West Bend. The finished Honda 350s will debut on June 5th at The Iron Horse Hotel in Milwaukee. Each bike will be judged in multiple categories for performance and appearance with trophies and scholarships awarded to the winners in several categories.

Following the debut, the bikes will be entered and raced in several events including the Vintage Race Weekend at Road America near Elkhart Lake, WI and several other tracks in neighboring states.

The program ends in September when the bikes are auctioned to the general public at the BUILD bike auction at The Iron Horse. Proceeds go toward sustaining of the BUILD program.

More information and photos can be found on the team’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/buildbrookfield ...and at the Build Moto site: http://buildmoto.com/