What child wouldn’t be happy as can be to wake up on Christmas morning and find a new bicycle under the tree?
No child Scott Campbell knows.
Campbell (no relation to Columbian Publisher Scott Campbell) is the spokesman for the Brush Prairie-based western regional office of Waste Connections, a national company based in Folsom, Calif. Waste Connections performs garbage and recycling collection all over Clark County. The corporate office’s “Christmas Promise” policy encourages local employees to provide bikes for needy children.
One day last year, Waste Connections employees in Clark County volunteered after work to assemble bikes to donate to local charities. They got 110 done in about two hours, Campbell said. As things got under way at the second annual bike-building event Thursday, the target was 250 bikes. About 60 volunteers were expected to turn up, Campbell said, including spouses, children and business partners. Pizza and cookies
helped.
So did a spirit of charity.
“I’ve got three kids and three grandkids,” said Dean Large, sales manager at Waste Connections, as he assembled a little girl’s bike. “It’s a tough economy now, and we’re fortunate to have jobs. We might as well help out.”