30 YEARS OF GIVING
Donor offers up bikes for kids
One good turn deserves another: A group of 90 disadvantaged kids will be given new bicycles as well as helmets and locks Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the Sun Youth gymnasium on St-Urbain St.
But the benefactor they call the “Bikeman” won’t be on hand for the presentation. He has chosen to remain anonymous since he first started his bike giveaway 30 years ago.
Sun Youth executive director Sid Stevens estimates that the Bikeman has picked up the tab for more than 1,500 bikes, helmets and locks. That tab works out to be over $600,000.
But this year, to mark his 90th birthday, the Bikeman decided to up the ante and give out 110 bikes, instead of the usual 75. Ninety will be handed out Wednesday, with another 20 distributed over the coming months. He has also donated a massive 90th birthday cake — in the shape of a bicycle, natch — for the kids to share in his absence.
So what has prompted this largesse?
“When I was 60 years old, I decided I wanted to celebrate my birthday in a different manner,” the Bikeman said in a phone interview — to protect his anonymity. “But I didn’t need anything. I had everything I could possibly want.
“I remembered that when I was a kid, I couldn’t get a bicycle, because my parents didn’t have the means. But I yelled and screamed, and they finally gave in and bought me a red Raleigh bicycle. I loved that bike so much that I cleaned the spokes with a toothpick.”
That got the Bikeman thinking that there are kids whose parents can’t afford to buy them bikes. So he decided the best gift he could get for his birthday was to give to those in need — anonymously.
“To borrow from the teachings of Maimonides: ‘From the unknown to the unknown.’ I’m very embarrassed by being public about giving,” he said. “I don’t feel deserving of praise for such a simple gesture.
“But I do keep telling other people that on their birthdays, those who can afford to, should celebrate by giving. What could be a greater gift than giving? And if they can’t afford a bike, what about donating a used kid’s book, for much less, to the Montreal Children’s Hospital Library?”
It is also the Bikeman’s wish that past recipients of bikes, who have the means, pay it forward, by donating to those in need.
This is not the Bikeman’s only offering to Sun Youth — he also supplies life preservers for the Sun Youth summer camp, and he has been known to donate funds and goods to families who have lost their homes in fires.
“He is also among the first to call to offer a cash reward for missing children,” Stevens noted. “He has probably put up more than $100,000 involving donations other than his bike giveaway.”
After 30 years, Stevens said he remains as awestruck as ever by this benefactor.
“I’ve never come across an individual quite like the Bikeman. I remember when he called us 30 years ago to start the initiative. He said it was a milestone birth- day coming and he joked that he didn’t want any Rembrandts, that he had all he could possibly ever need. He said he just wanted to give gifts for his birthday from that year on.
“The only stipulation he gave us was that it had to be anonymous. He said he didn’t want it to get out who was doing this and that it was never his wish to have his picture in the newspaper or to seek personal glory.”
Sun Youth has a committee headed by former Montreal police commander Bob Sauvé to sift through the hundreds of nominations sent in every year, and decide on those deemed most worthy for new bicycles. This year the committee received 330 applications.
One of the 110 recipients will be getting a tandem bicycle, because she is losing her eyesight. Two young boys will be able to replace bikes lost in separate fires at their homes. And an 11-year-old boy is being rewarded with a bike for saving the life of a 2-year-old girl who was swarmed by bees.
“The real beauty of the Bikeman is that he has become such an inspiration for us to do more,” Stevens said. “He really hopes his example will be followed by other merchants who have done well in life, to give a little back to the community.
“And it’s working. Two of the people on our bike committee were so touched by his gesture, that they each donated $1,000 to the bike-giveaway cause as well.”