As part of the GCC Holiday tradition, club members assisted the Gainesville Police Department with fixing and tuning 60 bicycles that were given to needy kids. This marks the tenth year GCC has helped with the Holiday Bike Program.
Each year, inmates of the Gainesville Work Camp, a Florida Department of Corrections road prison, repair and repaint more than 250 bicycles. Sixty of these bikes are given to the Gainesville Police Department to be given to needy children. On the weekend before the bikes are presented to the kids, GCC members check over the bikes, air all the tires and do any repairs necessary to make the bikes safe and roadworthy.
Sunday, Dec. 14 was a cold rainy day, and those club members who came to help were truly brave. Luckily, the owners of American Self-Storage Warehouse were generous and opened up two unused storage units so we didn't have to work on bikes in the rain.
Club members who braved the rain included Scott Butler, Dottie Dryer, Barry Gibbons, Tim Malles and sons Robert Malles and Michael Malles, Chandler Otis and Ted Richard.