Crank-n-carbsport Acknowledges Generosity
A newly created cycle club out of the Southern part of Utah County, knows first hand how to serve and give it back to its members. The club is sponsored by an energy drink-mix called CarbSport. The club itself is called Crank-n-CarbSport and recently finished a bike race from Salt Lake to Saint George. After a successful performance, good enough to finish in 7th place, a small tragedy occurred to one of the club members. Traveling back from St. George a gust of wind caught a hold of a bike and it flew out of the back of the truck at highway speeds and flipped around on the freeway. The damage was significant, the bike was damaged enough where the frame and most of the components would need to be replaced. The owner of this crashed up bike is Bret Ford.
Bret works for The Utah County Public Works in the road division and even has a second job working construction for a local asphalt company. He has a rough outer-shell but on the inside has been willing to help anyone that is in need. Inmates come and do various jobs for the County as part of a jail work program. Bret will take them out to lunch and even give them a few dollars and always tries to lift up their spirits and make them laugh. The co-worker that Bret is teamed up with will give him a hard time for giving money to people he does not know. Specially the people on the corner holding the cardboard signs begging for money. Bret will often give $5 to those who need a helping hand. His coworkers tell him all the time to stop giving to the “street beggars” because some of them are just scammers. Bret will comment that if they are standing on the corner asking for money there is a good chance they need some help, and he likes the way he feels seeing a smile on people’s faces when he gives them a few bucks. Bret’s wife works for a rehab center that helps youth and teens with addictions. She works with horses as a form of therapy and Bret will often go and help with the labor of taking care of the animals. Bret enjoys seeing how giving to people, who may be in a tough spot, can bring a little bit of a happiness to them and they can see there are still good people in the world.
As the Crank-n-CarbSport bike club got to know Bret little more and saw his generous attitude, they knew if this bike accident would of have happened to anyone of else, he would be leading the cause to help raise money to cover the cost for repairs.
The bike club secretly started to think of ways where they could help him. They reached out to Noble Sports who was doing the repairs on the bike and setup an account in his name. They shared his story on the club’s Facebook page. In less than a week they were able to raise the money to cover the full cost of the repairs, which was over $1,300. Bret picked up his new bike on Friday October 3rd from Noble Sports expecting to pay the full amount. However, when the cashier itemized the list of the repairs it sounded like it was going to cost more than the original estimate. Then the words “...and the total cost is NOTHING” Bret could not believe it, he soon found out that 15-20 anonymous donors paid for the repairs; Noble Sports even got into the spirit of giving and knocked off a few hundred dollars. When Bret realized all the people who were willing to help him out, he become emotional and started to cry. The Crank-n-CarbSport bike club was able to take this small tragedy and turn it into a very positive experience for everyone involved. They created a day that this “rough-looking (Harley Davidson biker turned cyclist) crazy tall guy with the beard” will never forget. Bret says his heart is full and wants to thank all the anonymous donors for their generous donations; Crank-nCarbSport, and Noble Sports for all their efforts in making a day he will always remember. Remember there are a lot of good people in this world.