Kosciusko County ABATE members joined forces once again Monday night to donate 40 bicycles and other items for needy families during the holidays.
ABATE, which stands for American Bikers Aimed Toward Education, has been collecting new bicycles, diapers and toys for 33 years to hand out for Christmas. Last year, ABATE collected 32 bicycles. It was their 32nd year doing it, Kosciusko County ABATE Representative Jerry Ganger said, so their goal was to get 32 bikes. This year, they exceeded expectations and got 40.
The group also collected a little over $2,500 that they used to go shopping and buy toys. But it’s more than just toys, Ganger said. Last year, the group also spent $500 on buying diapers.
“I was a needy kid, I never had a new bike,” Ganger said. “There’s needy kids out there, and that’s why we do this, to try to make their Christmas a little brighter.”
ABATE gives their donations to Combined Community Services for distribution.
Ami Pitt, a CCS volunteer who has been running the annual toy giveaway for 20 years, said in four days CCS took in 13,867 toys provided by 175 families. The annual toy consignment sale put on by CCS helps them purchase new toys for the giveaway. That giveaway is for anyone in need from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. today and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, she said.
The giveaway is for parents, not children, to come, and the parents will get to pick out two to three used toys from the consignment sale that didn’t sell and then volunteers from CCS will pick out new items for the families to leave with. For 40 of those families, that will mean being able to put a shiny, new bicycle under the tree this year.
Pitt estimates the toy giveaway will help roughly 1,500 children in the county.
“In all the years, we’ve never ran out of toys,” she said.
Pitt also said that Warsaw Community Schools has donated the use of a electromagnetic sanitizer to sanitize all of the items being given away.
She said ABATE members and CCS both bless the bicycles to protect the children.
