MASSARO: Down Syndrome Association honors bikers with big hearts

By Gary Massaro, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Originally published 12:30 a.m., March 19, 2008
Updated 09:45 a.m., March 19, 2008

Special To The Rocky

Jack Portice, left, and Jim Arnett have been friends and business partners for 30 years.

From a friendship that started 30 years ago, Jim Arnett and Jack Portice forged a business relationship that endures to this day.

And out of that, good things have happened for the Mile High Down Syndrome Association.

In return, the association has named them, along with their wives, Vicki Portice and Conni Arnett, volunteers of the month for March.

Portice, 65, and Vicki, 61, of Canon City, and Arnett, 56, of Pine Junction, have run the Colorado Motorcycle Show and Swap for 30 years. Conni joined in 10 years ago. Lately, the show has been held at the National Western Complex, drawing about 20,000 people.

They provide space and help promote a motorcycle raffle for the association. They also ask vendors to donate items to an auction to benefit the association.

Before Arnett became a partner, the Portices put on a motorcycle show. The first year in 1976 was really good.

"In '77, we got rained out and snowed out," Vicki said.

Arnett and Portice became partners with another guy in the old Colorado Custom Cycle shop in Aurora. Together, they started the first swap meet in 1978.

In 1982, one of their friends had a baby born with Down syndrome. They told her if she could persuade the association to let them use its raffle license, they would make a donation.

Portice grew up in South Dakota. He moved to Colorado in 1963, working as an auto body man. He met Vicki, a Brooklyn native, and they hit it off after he invited her on a motorcycle ride.

"When I come back from Vietnam, I just didn't fit in anywhere except with bikers," Portice said.

Arnett, 56, is a Colorado native. He bought his first bike in 1975.

"I got divorced and decided I needed a motorcycle," he said. A year later, he was working as a mechanic.

"I've always been handy with wrenches," he said.

Nowadays, Arnett is semi-retired.

"He's getting fussy in his old age," Portice said. "He picks and chooses what he works on."

Portice opened an art gallery in Como, selling wood carvings. He still does some carving, but mainly works on hot rods.

Arnett and Portice "are true bikers," Vicki said. "They don't haul their bikes to any meets. They ride them there."

Portice said he has seen children involved with the association doing things that years before were considered impossible, like getting an education and participating in sports.

"And maybe we had a very small part in making that happen," he said.

Arnett said he gets a big emotional boost seeing the association volunteers and their children at the show, and he wants to keep on helping.

"You can see everybody at least once a year. The kids grow up. That's what really touches you," he said. "Through the years, we've developed a friendship with them. You tend to help your friends, don't you?"

massarog@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5271