The Founders
Royal and Nancy Bidwell embarked on the Forget Me Not Mission primarily because both felt a need to give something of themselves to help humankind. Nancy’s personal experience of losing her 17-year old daughter, Shelly Reed, to a drunk driver in 1983 prompted them to gravitate toward starting a non-profit to help victims of drunk driving. Both have become more conscious of the tremendous numbers of DUI arrests reported in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner and Anchorage Daily News. Their desire to do something for the victims of drunk driving led them to their decision to act, and Forget Me Not Mission was born.
Nancy Bidwell was born in Manchester, New Hampshire and came to Alaska in 1950 with her Air Force family. They lived on Elmendorf Air Force Base until her father retired in 1961. Nancy spent over 58 years in Anchorage, graduating from West High School and attending Anchorage Community College and majoring in commercial art and design, and attending UAA to study computer science. Nancy started several businesses out of her home, in Anchorage in the 60′s and 70′s, including Anchorage Babysitting Referral Service, CB Radio Novelties, A-1 Engraving and The Mad Hatter Hat Shop. She worked for the Anchorage Daily News as a district manager for several years and also the Anchorage School District as Parent Resource Coordinator. She is very proud of starting the Readers Are Leaders Reading Program for the Anchorage School District at Taku Elementary School in the 90′s. She also worked for the Alaska State Troopers for several years and then retired from the State of Alaska in 2002.
Royal Bidwell was born and raised in northwestern Oregon, served his country in the U.S. Army in 1962 – 1965, and moved to Fairbanks, Alaska in 1965 where he attended the University of Alaska. He began working at Yukon Supply Company, a plumbing and heating supply house, in 1967 and when it was sold to Amfac in 1972 was manager of Amfac Supply Company until 1979. He had his own residential construction company from 1979 until 1983. In 1983 Royal opened a branch for Familian Northwest, a plumbing and heating, industrial pipe, valve and fitting wholesale supply house and managed it for the next 19 years. He retired from Familian in 2002 and entered into a contract with the Greater Fairbanks Community Hospital Foundation as Construction Projects Coordinator. His contract expired in May 2006, when he and his charming wife Nancy hit the road with the Forget Me Not Mission.
They traveled the U.S.A for almost 9 months in their fifth-wheel toy hauler, with their bikes safely tucked in the trailer’s garage. They took their Forget Me Not Mission message to 43 states and received a warm welcome from a lot of folks. They heard story after story about the horror of the drunk driver in every state. When they returned to Alaska in 2007, they held the first Throttle Thunder Relay. That was a very successful Motorcycle Fundraiser that started in Fairbanks and ended in Soldotna. After starting their own non-profit 501(c)(3) they planned the 2009 Throttle Thunder Relay and added another event, Thunder Run Walk ‘n Roll. This was a very successful walk/run fundraiser to increase public awareness and to put an end to Drunk Driving in Alaska.
Another Forget Me Not walk/run is planned in Fairbanks on April 24, 2010, in Anchorage on May 8, 2010 and in Juneau on April 24, 2010.
Now another event has been added ! Forget Me Not Trivia Night on March 27, 2010, from 7:00 -11:00pm at the Embassy Suites Imagine Ballroom in Anchorage. It was a fun filled evening of Trivia, Games, Raffles, and a Silent Auction.
