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December 26, 2012Local officials press school security changes
December 26, 2012
Instead of handing out two front teeth for Christmas, the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office gave out two-wheeled bikes to more than 250 Lafourche Parish children.
“We collected about 269 bikes this year,” said department spokesman Brennan Matherne. “Our two, two-man crews will be delivering bikes in the northern part of the parish today and in the southern part tomorrow. We will also be delivering some bikes to Grand Isle.”
Bikes for the annual Christmas giveaway are collected year-round and kept at the LPSO South Lafourche Substation in Galliano, and trustees there are charged with sprucing up any bikes in need of a little TLC. Since 1996, the LPSO has collected more than 2,800 bicycles and distributed them to needy children in the area through the bike giveaway.
On Tuesday, Matherne accompanied LPSO employees Dep. Brett Hymel and Gene Richard, who have both been doing the pre-Christmas deliveries for several years, as the duo handed out about a dozen bikes in the Ridgefield neighborhood.
As the three-vehicle caravan – a pickup truck with bikes in the bed, another with bikes in the bed and in a low bar trailer and Matherne’s unit – made their way down the road, neighbors filled the streets to see what all the commotion was about.
“This is the first year I’ve ever applied for the bikes,” said Michelle Price as Hymel rolled two bikes – a small girl’s bike and a larger boy’s bike – into her driveway. “Chris and Hanna, my children, both wanted bikes for Christmas. They don’t know they are getting them yet, but both of them will be pretty thrilled that they are getting bikes. They have been wanting bikes so that they could ride with their friends in the neighborhood who do have bikes.”
Price’s children were two of eight children who live on the same block to receive donated bikes for the holidays.
“My kids will be so excited that they are getting bikes,” said Price’s neighbor Michelle Chaisson. “They couldn’t ride bikes at the last place where we lived. It was an apartment complex, and there was no place for them to ride.”
“It’s going to be such a big surprise for so many of the neighborhood kids,” said fellow neighbor Christy Bonvillian, whose sons Charles, 13, and Christopher, 12, were also getting bikes from the bike giveaway. “I’ve got to call my mom. She wants to be here when the kids get home so she can see their faces.”
For parents who were going to wait until Christmas to give the bikes to their children, the daytime delivery during the week provided the perfect cover – Lafourche parish school children did not get out of school for the holidays until Friday.
Only one child in the neighborhood was tipped off early during the covert operation.
“He’s been sick since Sunday, so he stayed home from school,” said Wendi Brown as her youngest son Devan took his bike for a short test drive down Plymouth Street.
“Now Deronte and I can ride bikes together,” Devan said as Richard presented Brown with a bike for her oldest son.
Wendi Brown, right, of Thibodaux, looks on as her son Devan checks out his new bike from the Lafourche Parish SheriffÕs Office’s annual Christmas bike giveaway while Dep. Brett Hymel and fellow LPSO employee Gene Richard check for the next drop off location.
