Home » Sheriff’s Christmas Bike Giveaway Expands In 2012

Sheriff’s Christmas Bike Giveaway Expands In 2012

By  //  December 20, 2012

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Program Now Includes Homeless Veterans

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – An unheralded program is making Christmas wishes come true for even more deserving children and adults this year.

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Bike Giveaway Program has donated more than 1,000 bicycles to various Brevard County charities during the past year. (Shutterstock image)

In 2006, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office launched a program using inmates to refurbish abandoned and unclaimed bicycles and give them to underprivileged children for Christmas, birthdays and other holidays throughout the year.

The program has expanded to include homeless veterans who need bikes as their primary source of transportation.

This month the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office held its 7th annual Christmas bike giveaway at the Sheriff’s Inmate Work Farm in Cocoa and provided 340 bicycles to the Brevard County Sharing Centers, the Brevard Achievement Center and National Homeless Veterans Support.

The majority of bicycles will be provided to parents who would not be able to afford one for their children this holiday season.

In 2012, more than 1,000 bikes were donated to various Brevard County charities as a result of this program.

What made 2012 so special is that Wal-Mart in Titusville, Cocoa, Merritt Island and Melbourne generously donated more than 300 bicycles to the program to make it the program’s best year ever.

Waste Management also has partnered with the Sheriff’s Office and saves discarded bicycles that would otherwise be taken to the county landfill and gives them for refurbishment.

Since 2006, almost 5,000 bicycles have been donated.

For citizens wishing to donate a bicycle to the program, they can drop off their bike at any of these Sheriff’s Office locations:

• North Precinct- 750 Park Avenue, Building 4, Titusville

• East Precinct- 2575 N. Courtenay Parkway, Merritt Island

• Canaveral Precinct- 111 Polk Avenue, Cape Canaveral

• West Precinct- 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way, Building E, Melbourne

• South Precinct- 1515 Sarno Road, Building B, Melbourne

• Criminal Investigations- 340 Gus Hipp Boulevard, Rockledge

• Sheriff’s Work Farm- 2955 Pluckebaum Road, Cocoa

For more information about the Sheriff’s Bike Program, call Major Darrell Hibbs at 321-690-1502.