Fast friends rally around motorcycle collective’s Boss Lady

Lisa Wood of Tenino founded the Olympia branch of The Litas Women’s Motorcycle Collective last year because she wanted to connect with other women who shared her passion for riding.

Wood, whom The Litas affectionately call “Boss Lady,” found more than just riding companions, though; she found dedicated friends, friends who now are working together to raise money to help pay for her cancer treatment.

The Litas are hosting a passport ride Saturday — the first anniversary of the group’s inaugural meeting — as well as raffling off a motorcycle and organizing an online fundraiser.

“Lisa is very quiet, very private,” said Christe Smith of Olympia, one of the Olympia branch’s co-founders. “She doesn’t feel comfortable asking people for help. She’s more of a caregiver. it’s hard for her to receive.”

The members of the local branch are grateful that Wood brought them together, Smith said. “We haven’t known her a whole year, but we feel like we’ve known her forever,” she told The Olympian.

The feeling is definitely mutual, said Wood, who’d been riding in the Seattle area with the Puget Sound branch of The Litas before she started the local group.

“It’s been amazing,” she told The Olympian. “The Puget Sound group was so welcoming and encouraging, and it led me to start the group down here. I knew immediately they were people I was going to be doing more than just riding with. It’s a great group of women.”

The local branch, part of an international collective focused on women riders not only spending time together but also supporting one another in a hobby that’s dominated by men, gets together regularly and plans daylong rides.

With restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus limiting their ability to get together, the South Sound riders put on socially distanced motorcycle parades for birthdays and graduations.

“In my 11 years of riding, I’ve been in a lot of groups, and they just didn’t feel as inclusive and welcoming as this one,” Smith said. “We’re here to support each other even outside of the motorcycles.”

And that extends, of course, to helping the woman who brought the riders together. When Wood told them that the breast cancer she’d survived a decade ago had returned, Smith and co-founders Kelly James, Denise Rodriguez and Beth Storey immediately asked if they could put together a fundraiser. Their goal is to raise $10,000.

Wood has been unable to work more than a few hours here and there since December, when she began having debilitating back pain. In February, doctors discovered that the cancer had returned, spreading into her spine. Since then, she’s had surgery and has been undergoing months of chemotherapy, with radiation still to come.

She hasn’t been able to ride since December, either, lacking the strength to handle the motorcycle she started riding after her first go-round with cancer. “I was in my early 40s, and I kind of had a midlife crisis,” she said. “I thought it was the time to start doing some of the things I’d always wanted to do.”

Wood is matter of fact about the challenges she’s facing, including the coronavirus and the restrictions aimed at containing its spread.

“When you’re going through cancer, there are stupid things like your eyebrows falling out,” she said. “You just want to go get an eye pencil, and you can’t go to the store. The frustration of not being able to run little stupid errands is probably just as annoying as the pain.”

She downplayed not only the pain she’s endured, but also what she’s achieved in bringing The Litas to South Sound.

“I’m really thankful that I found this group that loves riding as much, as if not more, than I do,” she said. “I can’t tell you what a great group it has been for me emotionally, even before the cancer. It is just so uplifting to be around people who are so positive and so excited about planning these rides.”

When it’s pointed out that she didn’t just find the local group, she started it, Wood demurred.

“It was a fluke,” she said. “I was just too lazy to drive to Seattle for full-day rides (with the Puget Sound branch). It’s laziness that brought us together.”

Lisa’s Passport Cancer Run

• What: The Olympia branch of The Litas Women’s Motorcycle Collective is hosting a passport ride — participants in cars are welcome, too — and raffle to raise money for the medical expenses of branch founder Lisa Wood.
• When: 9:30 a.m. Saturday, June 20
• Where: Begins with a biscuits and gravy breakfast at Northwest Harley Davidson, 8000 Freedom Lane NE, Lacey, and concludes at Old Highway 99 Co. Bar & Grill, 12743 Old Hwy 99 SE, Tenino.
• Tickets: $10 per rider/driver and $5 per passenger
• More information: https://www.facebook.com/events/146088669985252/
• Raffle: The Litas are raffling off a 1988 Harley-Davidson “Plum Crazy” sportster. Tickets are $20 and are available at https://paypal.me/pools/c/8pvC9BTaH9 and at Revival Motors and Coffee Co. The drawing will be at 6 p.m. June 30.
• To donate: http://www.gofundme.com/f/benefit-fund-for-lisa-wood-litas-olympia