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Children from across Terrebonne Parish got quite a surprise Saturday morning when 100 bicycles were handed out as part of one Houma rotary club’s annual community service project.

The Houma-Sunrise Rotary Club, through the support of a handful of community partners, were able to gift the bicycles to children in need of a little holiday cheer during a giveaway at Houma’s Coastal Commerce Bank.

In order to give the gift of joy to children in need of a little something under the tree this year, the rotary club enlists the help of various local agencies working for the greater good of future generations to establish a list of such children in need. Andree Casey, Houma-Sunrise Rotary Club president, said the group also reaches out to local churches and the parish school district, rotating agencies each year to spread the holiday cheer.

“We contact the agency, we get a list from them of the ages of the children, male or female, the name of the child,” Casey said. “We also get the height of the child and from the height of the child, we determine the type of bike we’re going to buy.”

Money to purchase shiny new bikes for each child is garnered through fundraising efforts, the biggest of which is an annual fall golf tournament with proceeds going directly to the purchase of the giveaways. Over the past year, the club was able to raise close to $6,000, much of which went to community service projects as well as seed money to kickstart the group’s next year efforts.

With the money raised, bikes were purchased through Academy Sports and Outdoors and families filled the parking lot of Coastal Commerce Bank this past weekend to receive the generous gift.

In addition to the giveaway, children invited to the event were also treated to a delicious breakfast provided by Coastal Commerce Bank and an opportunity to sit on Santa’s lap for a photo and whisper their wish lists in his ear.

“Most of the time, they don’t realize that Santa is giving them a bicycle,” Casey said of the project which has given away 1,600 bikes to date. “It’s really, really a cool thing to see.”

The Christmas giveaway, now in its sixth year, is one of two major community service projects Houma-Sunshine Rotary Club focuses on annually. The other project includes purchasing computers for a man in Liberia working to establish schools in the African country.

Although the club boasts a modest 23-person member roll with 17 actively participating throughout the year, Casey said what the group is able to accomplish despite its small size is amazing. Through service projects such as the bike giveaway, which nearly 98 percent of its members participated in, she said the group has become close-knit, making for a greater sense of accomplishment.

“It is part of the mantra of Rotary,” Casey explained. “Service Above Self. I think the project certainly exemplifies that. It’s just amazing that we can get so many people working on a project. This event I think says a lot for our membership. It certainly has developed close friendships in the club that may not have come around. So often in these big organizations, it’s hard to get that feeling of accomplishment as an individual and I think with a small club, you get that with this project.”