Last modified: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 10:16 AM PDT Don Crownover (left) and Darrel Sawyer (right) enjoy ice cream after picking up 26 bicycles left unclaimed at the Fruitland Police Department last week. Crownover, Sawyer and a few others will be rebuilding bicycles they collected to make Christmas brighter for underprivileged children during this year’s Help Them To Hope Christmas drive. Lending a helping hand By JESSICA KELLER ARGUS OBSERVER FRUITLAND — While most people probably haven’t looked beyond summer to begin thinking about Christmas, one group of area residents is preparing early this year to bring joy and a merrier Christmas to less fortunate children this holiday season. Spearheaded by Don Crownover, an Ontario transplant of three years or so, he and five or six other men plan to donate their time and effort these next months to rebuild donated bicycles. The “like-new” bikes will then be distributed through the annual Help Them To Hope drive this year. “We want the bikes to look new,” Crownover said. “We don’t want the kids who get them to know that they’re used.” Their cause was jump-started with the donation of 26 surplus found or stolen bicycles left unclaimed at the Fruitland Police Department, which the members picked up last week. Darrel Sawyer, Fruitland, who is part of the effort, petitioned the City Council to donate the bicycles to the cause, and Police Chief Rick Skelly said the bikes would be auctioned off otherwise. The Ontario Police Department also donated six bikes, with six more on the way, and Crownover said he wouldn’t be surprised if more turned up during the next few months. Crownover said the bicycle program is sponsored by the House that Art Built because most of the men who agreed to fix the bikes have wives who are members of the organization. The bike program idea, however, was borrowed from one done by the Klamath Falls Fire Department when Crownover was fire chief. While that department donated the bikes through Toys for Tots, Crownover said he wanted to keep it local, and Help Them To Hope, which he and most of his bike partners volunteer with, was the obvious choice. “It’s a real heart-warming experience to go out and knock on a door and hand a kid a new bicycle,” he said. While fixing up old bikes is old hat to Crownover, he said the others shouldn’t have any problems picking up the skills. “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to fix a bicycle,” he said. “And most of (the work) is cosmetic — sanding and repainting and replacing handle bars and seats.” Crownover said the group will have about 40 bikes, for a range of ages, at its disposal to rebuild and refinish or strip down for parts. “Our goal is to have at least 12 completely looking like new by Christmas,” he said, adding he expects to exceed that number by quite a bit. While some of the bikes, currently situated at his house, need extensive work, only a few are beyond repair. “A lot of them are small kids’ bikes, which I think is great because there’s going to be more of a demand for them come Christmas,” Crownover said. The parts on the unusable bikes — one of them is just a metal bicycle frame — will be used to fix up the others slated for rebuilding and the metal sold for scrap. Those funds, he said, will go toward buying more parts. Wal-Mart officials, Crownover said, agreed to donate funds for the project, and KMart will donate parts and materials. He said the KMart manager he worked with told Crownover the business will also donate bikes in stock that would otherwise have to be returned to the supplier because they are missing a part or are faulty in some way. In addition to the bikes, Crownover said he wants to make sure the children receiving the presents are a little bit safer by applying reflective tape strips to the bikes and giving each child a helmet, as well. Those items have yet to be purchased. Because he wants this program to become an annual effort, Crownover hopes others will get involved. He said, after this year’s bikes are rebuilt and distributed, the group will probably have another year’s worth of bikes remaining for future distribution, and he expects more bicycles will go unclaimed at local police departments, which should help guarantee future supplies. Still, Crownover said, donations are welcome and appreciated. People who would like to donate a bike or something to help with the cause can drop it off at the House that Art Built, 443 S.W. First St., Ontario, or call HTAB at (541) 889-3616 to arrange for a pick-up. “I’m hoping somebody’ll donate about a dozen helmets, and we can give them away,” he said.