On Saturday morning, 100 members from the San Luis Obispo Waste Connections team and their families came together to assemble around 170 bikes for children this holiday season.
“All our drivers and all our workers here live and work in this community. It's an opportunity for our employees to not only service the industry of customers but it gives us a chance to give back to the community as well,” said Jeff Clarin, the district manager for Waste Connections.
Bikes are not the only thing being given away this year. Clarin says they’re hoping to get other toys into the hands of children as well.
“This year we partnered with the Salvation Army. When people come here, we ask them to bring an unwrapped toy. We're not only building a new bike for a child, we're also giving an unwrapped toy to the salvation army,” Clarin said.
Clarin says this year’s event was one of the largest they've had in the 22 years they’ve been doing it, with around 100 volunteers coming out to assemble the bikes.
It was the first year Roy Lear has participated in the bike build.
“Giving back to the community is just a wonderful feeling,” Lear said.
The bikes are purchased with money from vendors, employees and corporate match donations and then donated to local organizations for distribution.
As the operations supervisor for Waste Connections Group, Lear says getting to take part in the event with his daughters was a highlight.
“Waking the girls up a little early on a Saturday morning and coming out here in the rain, they helped out, they did plenty of work putting bikes together and helping out and just the family experience we had out here today was a wonderful experience,” Lear said.
