This article was originally published in The Examiner on Dec. 22, 2016.
By Eleanor Skelton
Staff Writer
The local Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club gave over 125 bikes to elementary children Dec. 15.
Cornell Price, president of Price Homes, headed up the drive along with several other companies like the Pappas Restaurants, owners of Pappadeaux. All of the bicycles were collected in one week, according a statement from the Salvation Army.
“My family moved around the city a lot, and I attended several different elementary schools. The Boys and Girls Club was one thing I could count on as a kid,” Price said in a release on Dec. 7.
Price grew up locally and was in the Boys and Girls Club basketball program. Organizing the bike drive is his way of giving back to the community, he said.
“I just want to impact their lives like the Boys and Girls Club impacted my life,” Price said.
“The Beaumont community is very responsive when asked to give,” Salvation Army area director Sandra Borne said in a release Dec. 7. “This is such a great opportunity to work together to make sure low income, at-risk kids in Beaumont have a very Merry Christmas.”
After receiving their bikes, the children got to tell Santa (Mike Sheffield) their Christmas wishes.
Honesty Thomas, a 7-year-old bicycle recipient, told Santa that she wanted a sleigh like him.
“But Santa had to say he only has one now, and there’s no snow in Texas, so we’re going to have to talk about that,” Santa said. “That’s beyond me, you’re going to have to talk to the weatherman. But if it does snow, who’s gonna help me out?”
“Rudolph!” Thomas answered. She and Santa chatted about his other reindeer as well.
Damon West, former sports star and legal assistant at Provost Umphrey Law Firm who speaks at Southeast Texas schools, sharing his story and teaching children about the consequences of breaking the law, helped Marcelo Molfino, assistant chief criminal investigator with the Jefferson County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, in distributing the bicycles.
Some of the kids recognized him from his speaking events at the schools, West said.
“I’ve never been a part of something like this,” West said. “Just to see these kids’ eyes when they get around these bikes is amazing.”
“Sandra and the volunteers here can’t [help these kids] by themselves,” Molfino said. “It’s gonna take the community.”
Molfino said he wants more people in the community to help disadvantaged children and explained that the Boys and Girls Club offers sports and help with homework and they are “not just about presents.”
“The Boys and Girls club is an important facet of this community,” Molfino said. “We need to circle around it and help them out because if we don’t help these kids out, we run into problems down the line.”
Beaumont Police Department Public Information Officer Haley Morrow was also at the event to connect with the children.
“The whole vision behind our police community relations unit and Beaumont Cops and Kids program is to reach kids at a young age [and] to cultivate the positive relationships between kids and police,” Morrow said. “We want to reach kids at a young age and help them to see the police as friends and protectors and not always in the capacity of law and order. We love doing this.”
Morrow thinks it is important for little girls to see a female police officer. She said several children dressed as police officers for the Trunk or Treat program earlier this fall.
“It’s just really empowering for little girls who they may not necessarily want to be a police officer when they grow up, but when they see a female in that role, they think, ‘Hey, I could do that, too,’” she said.
Eleanor Skelton 