Bike Elf

Bring bike Saturday to B&G Club for Bike Elf donation

Dewayne Wilson — Mon, 12 Jun 2017 19:44:13 +0000

Published on June 8, 2017 – Editorial Staff, The Daily Times

Read the opinion piece in the Daily Times

Who hasn’t thought about doing something to make a difference but let the impulse slip away? Rejoice! Opportunity awaits on Saturday. Just think of it as Christmas in June.

This get-’er-done act of kindness was inspired by Christmas. The year was 2014. The place was the site of an Angel Tree in Maryville. Dewayne Wilson noticed that the Angel cards left on the tree were from kids wishing for bicycles. The Townsend man knew exactly why a kid would want a bike. As a youngster in Texas his bicycle had been his portal to the world. He rode the streets, the roads, the trails. It’s how he got around to see his friends.

Wilson had visions of refurbished bikes dancing in his head. The next thing he knew his wife Leigh was hooked on his holiday inspiration. By early January the couple found themselves driving home with three used bikes in the bed of their truck and a dream replacing those visions. By the time they got home the dream became was a plan. They called it Bike Elf.

Today the husband and wife team that founded the nonprofit Bike Elf has taken in more than 800 gently used bicycles to refurbish and gift to children and young adults — pay attention here, it’s important — who earn them.

Bike Elf works with the Boys and Girls Club of Blount County and recently established a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of the Smoky Mountains in Sevierville. Children who come to these facilities earn bikes with good grades, perfect attendance, reading advancement and good behavior. Add another partnership: Wesley House Community Center in the Lonsdale Community in Knoxville.

Ever see the smile on a kid’s face when presented with a bike and when riding it for the first time? Consider yourself hooked. You don’t have to start a nonprofit to do your part. As one might imagine, it takes some gifting, some elbow grease and some money to make this work.

Bike Elf’s motto is: “You donate ’em. We fix ’em. Kids earn ’em.” Bike Elf has plenty of kids anxious to earn a bike, and has folks who can clean and repair them. Bike Elf needs the bikes. That’s where Saturday comes up and you come in.

Bike Elf will be at the Boys and Girls Club of Blount County (old Fort Craig Elementary) from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, June 10, to accept donations of gently used bicycles. When turned over to their new owners, the two-wheelers will be shiny and sharp-looking.

Be advised (jingle, jingle) donations are tax deductible. Christmas spirit in June? Yep, it’s a cool thing. Keep the Bike Elf rolling.

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Rounding up support: Bike Elf launches fundraising campaign, sharing stories

Dewayne Wilson — Tue, 30 May 2017 16:20:11 +0000

Published on May 30, 2017 – Melanie Tucker, The Daily Times

Read the story at the Daily Times

When Dewayne and Leigh Wilson stood in their driveway in Townsend a little over two years ago with a dream of providing bicycles to children and youth who didn’t have one, they had eight used bicycles in a small shed but a whole lot of drive.

This husband and wife team started the Bike Elf, a nonprofit that takes in gently used bicycles and then gifts them to children and young adults who earn them. They work with the Boys and Girls Club of Blount County and just recently partnered up with the Boys and Girls Club of the Smoky Mountains in Sevierville. Children who come to these facilities earn bikes with good grades, perfect attendance, reading advancement and good behavior.

In addition, a partnership has formed between Bike Elf and Wesley House Community Center in the Lonsdale Community in Knoxville.

Dewayne is Bike Elf’s president, the one who saw names on an Angel Tree at Christmastime 2014 and decided he would do all he could to see that no child who wanted a bike had to do without.

“I spent my entire childhood on my bike,” he said. “From dawn to dusk, especially in the summertime. I have no idea how many miles I put on it.”

Several bikes have been donated so far, but Leigh and Dewayne said what they need right now is monetary donations so they can purchase tools necessary for repairs, bike stands and parts. They recently entered a national video contest through Selective Insurance Companies of America. The public voted on their favorites, and Bike Elf came in third place, winning $1,000. They were presented the check last week.

It was perfect timing, Leigh said. She is secretary for Bike Elf and handles marketing. She has launched Bike Elf Stories on their website.

The first one is a video of brothers Phillip and Josiah Tucker. They both earned bikes through their work at the BGCBC. The video shows their dad talking about the program and then the elation on the faces of his sons as they run up to accept the bikes.

“BIke Elf Stories is about Bike Elf donors and volunteers and recipients and the bikes they donated, refurbished and received,” Leigh said. “It is all about something bigger than yourself.”

She said they have tons of photos taken when donors come to their bike drives to donate bikes they no longer want. There are pictures of volunteers who come into the Bike Elf bike shop and repair and clean them up. They have those celebratory photos of the children as they put their hands on the shiny bikes for the very first time. Many of those photos will now be condensed into stories to share as Bike Elf Stories.

Getting the word out

With a Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, this nonprofit is hoping to share its story with all who might be interested in coming along to help make a difference.

The Wilsons started with those eight bikes in a shed and then ran out of room so they converted a room in their basement into a bike shop. They outgrew that. Today, the BGCBC has allowed them to set up shop in the upper level of Fort Craig School in Maryville, which is where this Boys and Girls Club is also housed.

Go upstairs and there are three rooms full of bikes. The process of getting a bike from donor to recipient has been streamlined so the Wilsons and their volunteer board can know at any given time how many bikes are in their possession and what stage of completion they are in. Each is tagged and given a number and placed into a data base.

On work days, volunteers usually spend five hours getting the donated bikes into shape. The shop is stocked with tires of all sizes, tubes, seats, pedals and brakes. The workers are treated to lunch by Leigh and Bike Elf.

The biggest donation of bikes came in January 2016, Dewayne said. “We got 140 bikes in three hours.” That was two weeks after Christmas, he said. Children had gotten new bikes so Bike Elf got their old ones.

It’s been fun, these two said, to talk with the families who end up giving bicycles to the Bike Elf.

“There are some cool donor stories,” Leigh said. “Everybody has a story about the bike (being donated) and their first bike.”

Campaign moving forward

Momentum has been created with this national competition and third place showing. Leigh said she wants to push it forward with this current Bike Elf Stories campaign and fundraising. She said it costs about $50 to gift each bike.

Sometimes they receive bikes that are too worn or rusted to give away. But these are taken and recycled and the money earned put back into the program. Usable parts are also salvaged.

Every now and then, bikes also come in that look barely used. They might have been only ridden on the driveway.

“Others come in mud-caked and scuffed up and the kickstand was never used,” Leigh said. They will take them all.

One of Dewayne’s favorite Bike Elf Stories is about three bikes he and Leigh went all the way to Sevierville to pick up. The man who called to donate them said they were in a barn. The Wilsons pictured old bikes encased in cobwebs.

They got a shock when they saw them — awesome little dirt bikes that had been ridden by the man’s granddaughters. Leigh and Dewayne brought the bikes to the Bike Elf bike shop, gave them some tender care and at least one of them has already been gifted to a grateful little girl.

There are so many stories to tell, the husband and wife said. They want to share what they see behind the scenes. Many times people will donate to a cause and never really know the impact they have. Not so with Bike Elf. Bicycle donors will even be invited to the giveaway ceremonies that feature the bikes they graciously gave.

The next bike drive will be held June 10 at the Boys and Girls Club of Blount County. The Wilsons are hoping for another good turnout. There seems to be a good supply of gently used bikes that people are happy to turn loose of.

“There are kids outgrowing bikes every day,” Leigh said. “There are parents with those bikes in their garages wondering, ‘what am I going to do with them.’”

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An Army of volunteers; Event puts focus on helping one another

Dewayne Wilson — Sat, 13 May 2017 16:21:27 +0000

Published on May 13, 2017 – Melanie Tucker, The Daily Times

Read the story at the Daily Times

(Maryville) Salvation Army, an organization mostly known for its Red Kettle campaign at Christmastime, held an event Thursday night to recognize the tireless work done all year by its volunteers.

Lt. Whitney Tomberlain, Maryville Corps Officer, announced the recipient of two awards. Vicki Borden won the Helping Hands Award, while Bike Elf received the Red Shield Community Impact Award.
Borden was unable to attend, but Bike Elf President Dwight and his wife Leigh were there to accept theirs.

Tomberlain said Borden has been a SA volunteer for three years. She also created and manages the data base for Salvation Army’s Angle Tree program that provides clothes and toys for Blount County’s needy families at Christmas. Borden sorts toys and clothes for this project, Tomberlain said, calling this volunteer a “joyful servant.”

Nonprofit Bike Elf began in Townsend when the Wilsons decided to take in used bikes, refurbish them and give them to youth in the community. They are teamed up with the Blount County Boys and Girls Club in addition to the Salvation Army.

“They donated 30 new bikes to Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program,” Tomberlain said. Plus 100 bike helmets and 100 bike locks. Tomberlain said the Wilsons are examples of what eagerness and enthusiasm to serve can accomplish.

She also talked about the various programs Salvation Army offers in Blount County. There is the Gas for Go-Getters, which provides gas vouchers for those looking for a job. Participants complete a job readiness class that helps them prepare for an interview, Tomberlain said.

Children and youth are also invited to a Tuesday evening program each week that includes a meal and learning opportunity. Ages 6-16 are welcome.

Feeding the hungry

Every Friday, SA volunteers staff a mobile canteen in the parking lot of Broadway United Methodist Church in Maryville, handing out free lunches. Tomberlain said because of that weekly outreach, this SA was able to feed a homeless man and also help him get a job and a place to live. About 70 individuals come to the canteen each week.

Last Christmas, this Salvation Army served 138 families at Christmas, and a total of 332 children.

The speaker for the evening was the Rev. Charles Maynard, Maryville District superintendent for the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church. He told a personal growing-up story about his school days and lessons learned when you take the time to get to know someone.

He took the audience back to his elementary school days and service on the Safety Patrol. He described a school janitor they called Cy, short for Cyclops, he said, because the man had a glass eye, was missing some fingers and walked with a limp.

But on a day when the school received a new flag pole and flag, these elementary school students saw the janitor stand at attention and salute. He looked the way he did and walked they way he did because he served his country and was injured by a grenade.

“We had seen that man every day for six years but we never saw him,” Maynard said. “We never knew who he was.”

Maynard said he also came to understand his community had given the man a job because they wanted to help a wounded veteran. “They gave him a job, a place at the school,” Maynard said.

He compared what that community did to what the Salvation Army is all about.

“This Army we talk about tonight sees people as they really are, for who they are, for who they can be, for things they can do in our community,” he said. “It’s our role to be a part of this force that reaches out to our neighbors in need. Salvation Army helps us see our neighbors and to do something about that.”

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Bike Elf rewards good grades with new wheels

Dewayne Wilson — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 00:33:55 +0000

Published on February 1, 2017 – WVLT News, Brittany Tarwater

Watch the story on WVLT

(BLOUNT COUNTY, Tenn) From bells to baskets, glitter to gears, there aren’t many things more personal, more special to a child than their bike.

“My bike is pink and purple and it has stars and moons on the wheels and it’s really big and really pretty,” said Izabella Queen.

Until just last June, Izabella didn’t have a pink and purple bike—she didn’t have one at all. But she made a deal, worked hard, kept to her word and earned that bike with stars and moons on the wheels.

“I was really excited like on a scale of one to 100, it was 100,” she said.

That deal she made was with Bike Elf. It’s the same one they make to other kids at the Boys and Girls Club in Blount County, Wesley House in Lonsdale and other places.

“They actually step up to a poster and sign their name and we create a little contract,” said Dewayne and Leigh Wilson.

If they make straight As all semester, they’ll get their own bike.

“If you work for something, you get it. but you have to put in the work. And that if you don’t reach the goal then you don’t get the reward,” the Wilsons added.

It started two years ago when the couple moved to East Tennessee from New Orleans. Close to Christmas that year they wanted to collect 100 bikes to give away for the holidays.

“Maybe I thought that we would fix up 100 bikes for Christmas, and that would be a really cool thing to do, and that would be the end of it,” said Leigh.

That was just the beginning of it.

“We were driving all over East Tennessee to pick up bikes one at a time,” added Dewayne.

They collected the bikes, but instead of waiting until Christmas, they partnered with the Boys and Girls Club to give the kids some incentive to read, write and ride.

“We want them not only to reach the goal and get the bike but we want them to understand the process,” said the Wilsons.

Now, instead of driving to collect the bikes, they hold bike drives where people can drop them off. So far, they’ve gotten more than 500. Some without seats, need new chains, some new pedals. Volunteers help fix them up so they’re ready to give to kids who make the grades.

“They call people up and they stand next to their bike and people get really excited when they get a bike,” said Queen.

“If you do whatever the goal is and you reach that goal then you’re going to get the prize and that’s what life is all about,” added the Wilsons.

Bike Elf is hosting a bike drive Saturday, Feb. 4 at the Boys and Girls Club in Blount County from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. They’re accepting gently used bicycles.

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Kids can hit the books, earn a bike

Dewayne Wilson — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 15:36:03 +0000

Published on January 18, 2017 – Ruth White, South-Knox Shopper News

(Knoxville) Christmas has come and gone, but some elves are still in Knoxville surprising students.

The Bike Elf organization volunteers stopped by Wesley House last week and announced their new initiative, Read, Write and Ride with Bike Elf.

The program will challenge the students of Wesley house Community Center’s after school program to earn a bicycle during the spring term at school.

The challenge was given by Wesley house director Anderson Olds: All students in the program who earn first honors (all As and Es) in school on the next two report cards will receive a bicycle from Bike Elf. Olds said that two Wesley house goals for 2017 were 1) to find ways to honor their participant children by celebrating them and their successes, and 2) to create motivating educational programs and incentivize learning.

Bike Elf co-founders contacted Olds in October 2016 with an interest in partnering with Wesley House. Dewayne believes in students earning the bicycles. Students meeting the goal will be awarded a bicycle, helmet and bike lock in June.

The bicycles are not new, but after the elf volunteers are done refurbishing them it is hard to tell that they were ever ridden by anyone else. The volunteer team cleans the bike, repaints them when necessary, adds new tires, seats and other repairs.

During a recent assembly, students stepped up, were measured and signed their name on several posters indicating the size bicycle needed when they meet the goal. Over the next four months, Wesley House and Bike Elf have activities planned to remind the kids of their goal and keep them motivated to achieve earning a bicycle.

Bike Elf is in its second year of giving bicycles to children and began after the Wilsons and their friends had dinner together before Christmas. Christi Fightmaster, on the board off the Salvation Army in Maryville, shared with the Wilsons how children left on the Angel Tree were usually ones who had requested bicycles for Christmas. The Wilsons decided to collect enough bicycles to give 100 away for Christmas 2015, but after much discussion the delivery date was moved to June for the first giveaway as a way to motivate students in school. In the first year they received over 200 bike donations.

They will be holding a bike drive at the Boys & Girls Club of Maryville at 520 S. Washington St. from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4 and Saturday, Feb. 18 for anyone interested in donating a used bicycle or to make monetary donations (to purchase seats, tires, tubes, etc. to repair the bicycles). Bike Elf’s motto is “you donate ‘em. We fix ‘em. Kids earn ‘em.”

To learn more about the Bike Elf program, visit bike-elf.org or Facebook/bikeelf.

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Bike Elf partners with Wesley House

Dewayne Wilson — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 14:53:01 +0000

Published on January 16, 2017 – Ken Lay, The Knoxville Focus

(Knoxville) Some area elementary and middle school students now have chances to earn bicycles thanks to anew partnership between the Wesley House and Bike Elf.

The association between the two entities was launched Tuesday afternoon at the Wesley House, which serves the Lonsdale and Mechanicsville Communities.

The partnership is part of Bike Elf’s Read, Write and Ride with Bike Elf. Under the agreement with Wesley House, each student in the Children’s After-School Recreational Support (CARES) Program will get a chance to earn a bicycle, but getting a bike won’t be easy.

A student in Grades K-8 will earn a bicycle if he or she achieves first honors on each of two report cards during the spring semester. In order to achieve that status, the student must make all A’s and E’s during both grading periods.

“We wanted to find ways to honor our participant children and create [a] motivating educational program and incentivize learning,” said Anderson Olds, the Wesley House’s program director. “First honors is all A’s and E’s and that’s not easy. This is a way to celebrate our children and we really wanted to do this.

“Second honors certainly isn’t bad but we really wanted to show our children that if you want something, you have to go out and get it.”

Bike Elf will return to Wesley House to award the bicycles in June following the completion of the 2016-17 school year.

Bike Elf has its roots in Blount County and has a similar partnership with Boys and Girls Club there. It was founded in 2015 with the goal of giving children the chance to earn bicycles.

The 501-3C non-profit organization’s slogan is “You donate ‘em. We fix ‘em, Kids earn ‘em.”

The organization reconditions gently used bicycles.

“We started two years and five days ago, and we’ve been working with the Boys and Girls Club of Blount County,” said Bike Elf Secretary Leigh P. Wilson. “This partnership was the perfect fit.”

The organization creates partnership and agrees to provide bicycles but Bike Elf doesn’t set earning standards. “We leave the standards up to our partners and [Wesley House] is taking no prisoners,” Wilson said. “They want their kids to achieve at the highest level.”

The Wesley House partnership is the first of three big events for Bike Elf. The organization will host a pair of Bike Drives at the Boys and Girls Club in Maryville on Feb. 4 and Feb. 18.

Both drives are from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. and all donations are tax deductible.

“We take gently used bikes and we take cash donations,” Wilson said. “We can’t have rust and we don’t take new bicycles.

“We use cash donations to by seats, tubes and tires. If these kids work this hard to earn the bikes, then we want to make it worth their time and effort.”

In two years, Bike Elf has donated more than 600 bicycles.

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‘Bike Elf’ to reward Wesley House kids with wheels

Dewayne Wilson — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 20:07:45 +0000

Published on January 11, 2017 – Kristi L. Nelson, Knoxville News Sentinel/span>

Read the story at the Knoxville news Sentinel

Watch the Knoxville News Sentinel video

(KNOXVILLE) On the stage of Wesley House on Tuesday afternoon sat four shiny, colorful bikes.

And in the floor below, around 80 schoolchildren sat in rapt attention, waiting to hear what they could do to earn one.

Bike Elf founders Dewayne and Leigh Wilson, flanked by volunteers with the nonprofit, were there to tell them: straight As and Es for two consecutive report-card periods. If they achieve that, Leigh Wilson told the children, “In June, we’re all going to come back and you’re going to get a bicycle!”

Some of the kids gasped; some grinned. Some just stared. Then, from up front, a small hand ventured up, and a soft voice asked, “Do you get to take the bike HOME?”

For Blount County-based Bike Elf, expanding into Knox County was a perfect way to kick off its two-year anniversary. Since 2015, the 501(c)3 program has worked with the Boys and Girls Clubs in Blount County, where the Wilsons live. Wesley House is its first partner outside Blount County.

The couple, who moved to Townsend in 2014 after changes from Hurricane Katrina affected the Louisiana-based software consulting business they owned, came up with the idea to acquire and refurbish bicycles for local children after learning from a friend that the last children left on the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree that year were kids who asked for bikes.

“I spent my entire childhood on a bike,” Dewayne Wilson said. “Growing up in a working-class family, it was the best thing I ever had in my life.”

Wilson vowed to collect and renew 100 used bikes by next Christmas, but the cost of buying bikes used at garage sales and through Craigslist and then repairing them was a little more than he expected — as was the space needed to store 100 bicycles.

The Boys and Girls Clubs had a solution. The Wilsons could store the bicycles in unused space in the old Fort Craig school building, and the club could give them out as incentives to motivate children to reach certain goals.

Since then, about 100 Boys and Girls Clubs members have gotten bikes through Bike Elf, Leigh Wilson said. Meanwhile, the organization has acquired volunteers and many more bikes waiting for repair and riders.

Bike Elf will have bike drives for “gently used” children’s and adults’ bikes 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Feb. 4 and 18 at the Boys and Girls Clubs at Fort Craig, 520 S Washington St., in Maryville. The group also needs volunteers as well as donations to purchase seats, tubes, tires, grips and other repair items, and the new bike lock each child gets with a bike. Epilepsy Foundation of East Tennessee also provides new helmets for the children and fits them at the ceremonies where the children get their bikes.

A presentation to United Methodist Women in Maryville last summer led to the opportunity to expand to Wesley House, since Bike Elf works only with partner organizations, not individual families. Leigh Wilson, who has a background in corporate training and education, also developed a state-approved curriculum, “Read and Write with Bike Elf,” to keep the goal fresh on children’s minds between now and June.

Wesley House set the goals for children to earn bikes. On Tuesday, Bike Elf volunteers began measuring excited children who hoped to be able to present two “first honors” report cards in June. The posters bearing their heights — and what bikes they will receive — will hang in the hallways at Wesley House, as a reminder.

“It’s a pretty high goal to reach,” said Wesley House assistant program director Elnita Session, but she said most of the children were capable of making the grades, with some being held back by conduct. “If they’re not being pushed, they don’t work as hard.”

Session said children who don’t achieve first honors but have “shown progress” will “get rewarded another way.”

Too, they’ll have other chances, Leigh Wilson said.

“We’re in it for the long haul,” she said. “Our plan is to come back in the fall and do it again.”

“And then the next spring, and the next fall, and the next spring … “ Dewayne Wilson added.

How to help

Donate bikes: 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Feb. 4 and 18, Boys and Girls Clubs, 520 S. Washington St., Maryville

Donate money:http://bike-elf.org

More information: 865-336-2967; [email protected]

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Bike Elf teams up with Wesley House

Dewayne Wilson — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 19:56:23 +0000

Published on January 10, 2017 – WBIR News

Watch the story on WBIR

WBIR reports from the Bike Elf Read, Write & Ride With Bike Elf challenge at Wesley House Community Center in Knoxville.

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Bike Elf will collect new and gently used bicycles this Saturday in Maryville

Dewayne Wilson — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 04:45:22 +0000

Published on January 3, 2017 – WBIR News

Watch the story on WBIR

(MARYVILLE) Did Santa bring you a new bicycle? You can put a smile on a child’s face by donating the bike your new one replaced.

Dewayne and Leigh Wilson started Bike Elf with this motto: “You donate ’em. We fix ’em. Kids earn ’em.”

Children are eager to earn a bike, volunteers are willing to clean and repair them – all Bike Elf needs now is more donations.

Bike Elf will collect bicycle donations Saturday, Jan. 7 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Drop off bikes outside the Boys & Girls Club of Blount County at the old Fort Craig Elementary School building, 520 S. Washington St., Maryville.

Bike Elf is a 501(c)3 and all donations are tax deductible.

Boys & Girls Club
520 S Washington St.
Maryville, Tennessee

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GOING THE DISTANCE: Bike Elf brings Christmas cheer to local children

Dewayne Wilson — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 14:44:48 +0000

Published on December 16, 2016 – Melanie Tucker, The Daily Times

Read the story at the Daily Times

(Maryville) With a name like Bike Elf, you’d assume it’s a crazy busy time of year — and you’d be right.

Elves have been busy for weeks here in Blount County, raising money to see that Christmas is bright for children.

Bike Elf is a nonprofit organization based here in Blount County that takes in used bikes in good shape, refurbishes them and then awards them to students who earn them. They’ve donated more than 100 to places like Blount County Boys and Girls Club to give out to students reaching personal goals or demonstrating improvements in academics.

This Christmas, Bike Elf Founders Dewayne and Leigh Wilson decided to partner again with the Salvation Army and its Angel Tree program. Families in this community sign up with the SA to receive help providing a merry Christmas for their children. Those children’s names end up on an Angel Tree where generous shoppers then purchase what’s on the child’s wish list.

The Angel Trees were located at both Wal-Marts, both Starbucks and also National Fitness.

Give me some wheels

Bikes were heavy on the wish lists, said Corps Officer Lt. Whitney Tomberlain, of the Salvation Army. So when Bike Elf agreed to raise money to purchase new bikes for these children, she was elated.

That ended up being 30 new bikes. They were delivered to the Salvation Army on Wednesday afternoon and will be distributed to families Saturday morning. Salvation Army board members Sam Coulter, Bob Tiebout and Christi Fightmaster were on hand to wheel the bikes into the SA building on Sevierville Road in Maryville.

Leigh Wilson said funds were raised from various sponsors to purchase the brand new bikes. Then she and Dewayne went out on Black Friday to do the shopping. Local sponsors included businesses like Academy Sports Outdoors, ALCOA TENN Federal Credit Union, Anderson Lumber Company, Blount Partnership, Nelson Realtors Inc., Douglas and Virginia Hardwick, Hickory Construction, Katherine Dorner, Home Federal Bank, Mary Beth West Communications, ORNL Federal Credit Union, PCS Inc., Power Equipment, Promat and their employees, Pugh CPAs and Safe Skies.

What a day

“I have never been in a store on Black Friday,” Leigh said. “But these bikes were on killer sale so I said ‘I’m in. Let’s do it.’”

It took seven hours to complete the purchase of the bikes and transport them from the store. — a test of anyone’s patience and resolve. Half of the bikes were already assembled, so trucks were needed for hauling. The others ones that were boxed up needed to be assembled. Luckily, Bike Elf had a team of assemblers to make easy work of the chore.

In addition to the bicycles, Bike Elf also presented the Maryville Salvation Army with a check for $945. Leigh Wilson is also equipping 107 children with bike helmets and 109 bike locks. The money is being used to purchase gifts for Angel Tree children that were still lacking some presents, Tomberlain said.

Fightmaster said being part of this project is so rewarding. She loved the fact that so many children requested bikes for Christmas.

“Especially in this day and age when it’s all about video games and gaming systems,” she said. “It speaks volumes that these kids want to be active.”

An idea is born

Bike Elf was started in January 2015 by the Wilsons, a husband and wife team. The goal at that time was to acquire and refurbish 100 bicycles by Christmas 2015. In just under two years, Bike Elf has had nearly 600 bicycles donated and has gifted 100 bicycles to deserving children. The Wilsons started it all in the garage of their Townsend home.

There were a total of 109 Blount County children who wanted bikes this year at Salvation Army and Bike Elf took on the responsibility of getting the large ones, Leigh said. “Those are the ones that are tough to hang on an Angel Tree,” she said. “It is easy enough to put together a 12-inch bike and load it in the backseat of a car. It’s not a huge investment. You need a truck for these.”

Credit also goes to the Epilepsy Foundation of East Tennessee for helping provide bike helmets, Leigh said.

It is only a few days until Dec. 25 and this project means children who might not have received bicycles for Christmas will find them under the tree. Tomberlain said there were still other Angel Tree gifts that hadn’t yet been delivered to the SA office. These gifts are to be handed out Saturday.

This year there were certainly more families and children being helped by the local Salvation Army. There are 132 families, which includes 330 children. That’s a 30 percent increase over last year.

Bike Elf, the Wilsons said, is glad to have a part in making Christmas all the merrier.

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