(Photo by Jeremy Williams)
ORLANDO | The KindRED Pride Foundation turned out dozens of Santa’s elves at Joy Metropolitan Community Church in Orlando Dec. 16 as more than 100 Central Florida kids were gifted their first bike.
Santa’s Bike Force, which was started by Tom Christ and Billy Looper in 2003, celebrated its 18th year bringing 16-, 18- and 20-inch bikes and helmets to 110 kids.
Shannon Graves, who helps to coordinate the volunteers and works with local organizations to match children up with the bikes, says this was the biggest year that Santa’s Bike Force has had in its nearly two decades.
“I started volunteering with Santa’s Bike Force five years ago and have built some great relationships with organizations that we still work with today,” she says. “We also worked this year with a new organization, FACT foster care, and they have about 30 children who are in the foster care system who are all getting their first bike today.”
Foster Adoptive Caregiver Team is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization in Central Florida who advocate, empower, educate and support families effected by foster care.
Graves says they also worked this year with Healing the Children, one of the oldest and largest volunteer-driven charities in the U.S. who partners with health care providers to help underserved children around the world secure urgently needed medical care otherwise unobtainable, and the Orlando Dream Center, a resource center that provides assistance to local at-risk individuals and families.
“Orlando Dream Center does a lottery every year and this year we were able to give a bike to every single person that went through their lottery,” Graves says.
The bikes were purchased thanks to the nearly $11,000 in donations raised through the event’s GoFundMe page. The fundraising began early this year, says Christ, because of the issues with the country’s supply chains.
“Normally we don’t even start emailing people about donations until after Thanksgiving but this year we sent the first email out at the end of September,” Christ says. “So from that point, I went to a few Walmart stores and told them what we were looking for and we were able to get all of the bikes from them.”
Santa’s Bike Force not only was able to get all the bikes from local Walmart stores but they also received a $1,500 grant from Walmart Community Grants this year as well.
The supply chain issues also meant Christ and Looper had to pick the bikes up as the supplies came in and store them until the event.
“We ended up renting two storage units and picked the bikes up at three separate times from Walmart and store them,” Christ says, “but we were very fortunate to be able to find all the bikes and helmets we needed for the kids this year and it was all worth it.
“It’s my favorite day of the year he continued. “Seeing the kids smile and knowing that you’re making a difference in their Christmas and making it a little more special is really incredible. Gives me goosebumps just talking about it.”
The day of the event, the kids were each given a bike, helmet, cookies provided by Se7enbites and got to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus, as well as the many volunteers that helped to make this the biggest Santa’s Bike Force ever.
To learn more about Santa’s Bike Force, go to Santa’s Bike Force’s Facebook page.
