Christmas comes early for crowd of happy kids as Sheriff’s Office gives away 250 bikes
As soon as Bernadita Flore arrived at the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Honor farm on Tuesday, she — and dozens of other kids — sprinted to hundreds of bikes lined up in the parking lot.
Her mother, Alejandra Flore from Paso Robles, told the Tribune in Spanish this was their first time participating in the sheriff’s bicycle giveaway, and she was excited her daughter was able to get a bike to celebrate her ninth birthday.
A smile lit up Bernadita’s face as she saw the perfect bike. It was red, which matched her red Hello Kitty shirt, red pants and red sneakers. Red is her favorite color, she said.
The children’s smiles are San Luis Obispo County Jail inmate Michael Tidd’s favorite part of the Sheriff’s Office bike giveaway. He and other inmates collected and refurbished the bikes to give to low-income families across the county — a tradition the office has held annually since 1989.
“You come (to jail) and you get in trouble. You may as well try to give something back to the community,” Tidd told The Tribune. “It’s me doing my little part to help me out. Since I am incarcerated, I may as well make it worthwhile.”
The giveaway is a yearlong process for the Sheriff’s Office, correctional Lt. Robert Crout told The Tribune.
The office uses unclaimed bikes it finds in the field, and then networks with local bike groups for donations, whether its helmets, parts or full bikes. From there, inmates fix them up so they’re ready for a new home.
Bike SLO, a community cycling group, partners with the jail for the event by teaching inmates how to repair bikes.
Families can apply for bikes online about two months before the giveaway, which helps give the Sheriff’s Office an idea of how many bikes they will need in their inventory, Crout said.
About 250 bikes will be given away this year — a jump from the 112 bikes given away in 2021, which was affected by COVID-19 restrictions, he said.
“This is the best because you get to see all these people come out who maybe can’t buy bikes of their own,” Crout said. “When I was a kid, I grew up on a bike — wrecking most of the time — but I grew up on a bike all outside, everything. And for a kid not to have that opportunity, that’s really what it’s about.”
“It’s not about the adults. It’s about giving back to the children and making sure that they have something for Christmas.”
The bike giveaway not only gives back to the community, but it also helps teach inmates skilled labor they can utilize once they are released from jail, Crout said.
San Luis Obispo mother Khrystyn Arreola said she received her first bike through a Salvation Army giveaway, and she’s glad she was able to participate in the sheriff’s program this year so her two kids, 7-year-old Sophia and 3-year-old Christian, could get bikes too.
The chain on Sophia’s old bike was broken, along with the tires, so the 7-year-old was excited to be able to ride around the neighborhood again. Plus, the bike was pink — her favorite color — so that was an added bonus.
“You get to do a lot of things with them,” Sophia told The Tribune. She added that she was excited to help teach her younger brother how to ride his new bike.
Anyone can donate bikes to the Sheriff’s Office by dropping them off at substations or at the Honor Farm, Crout said. They’ll take bikes in any condition and all sizes, he said, adding that there is usually a smaller supply of small child bikes despite that size being the highest demand.
To apply for a bike next year, families can go to the Sheriff’s Office’s website around October to find the online application. Several nonprofit groups also help facilitate applications for bikes, Crout said.
This story was originally published December 13, 2022 at 1:27 PM.
