LAFFERS DANCE - Kidscreen

up front
When she’s not implementing interactive
strategy and handing out Lunar
Jim stickers to the many tourists
who mistake her jam-packed, street-level offi ce
for a toy store, the CBC’s Kim Wilson likes to
take to the open highway on her black Honda
Shadow VLX 600, which she affectionately calls
Jet. The creative head of children’s and youth
programming discovered her love of motorcycles
just three years ago, after a battle with
thyroid cancer left her determined to never put
personal goals on the backburner again.
So without further ado and with no riding
experience whatsoever, Wilson signed up for
a weekend crash course populated heavily
by men in mid-life crisis mode who’d already
ordered their expensive Harleys and head-totoe
leather riding gear. A scant few days later,
she came out with her phase one license in
Motorcycle mama
hand, something only 35% of the students
managed to do.
Now Wilson spends much of her leisure
time cruising the empty secondary
highways north of Toronto,
where there are acres
and acres of open green
space to explore. A self-professed
speed junkie who
has tried just about every
adrenaline sport going, Wilson
often pushes her cruiserstyle
bike to its capacity. “I know
it sounds silly,” she says, “but there’s a
freedom that comes from being at one with this
machine in the middle of nowhere with the air
fl ying through you. It’s a very zen experience.”
This summer, Wilson is hoping to take a
longer roadtrip to Calgary to visit her brother.
CBC youth head Kim Wilson
goes Easy Rider on the weekends
But before that, she’ll make a stop at KidScreen
Summit, where she’d be happy to engage in a
little gear talk with anyone who shares her love
of riding motorcycles. JC