Help my Titan help children. Santaswheels.org

**DeadRiver** · 12-06-2010, 09:36 AM

Santa's Wheels | Home

Last year with the economy being what it is and the holiday approaching I found myself a bit depressed. I wasn't able to provide the Christmas I had envisioned for my own family and felt awful about it. Typically it's my one time a year to go nuts for the family and give them what they've all wanted for the previous year. Unfortunately it was typically done with my Christmas bonus.

That being said I needed to do something to lift my spirits. I saw an innocuous post on Facebook from a friends mother about a need for a pick up truck. I replied offering my help. What I hadn't realized is that she had created a charity to help local children receive bicycles on Christmas and we were about to purchase those bicycles with the funds raised and transport them to the storage facility. We ended up purchasing about 30 bicycles that were then distributed to local families in need through the Housing Authority.

This year the need is even greater and I will once again do my part to participate in this charity. I'd like to keep myself and my truck as busy as possible so please consider a donation.

Santa's Wheels | Home

Here is one of our loads last season:

here is a copy of an article published last year:

Quote:

Wheels Brightens up Christmas for Needy

Peg Trill does not need to see the faces of the children her non-profit donates bikes to each Christmas.

"I can almost feel their excitement," said the Ridley Park resident and founder and president of Santa's Wheels. "Every year, I think of all these little ones screaming, "I've got a bike! I've got a bike!'

"It's the greatest feeling in the world."

This is the third year Santa's Wheels has given bikes to children in need.

"The first year, it was three bikes that I purchased. Last year it was 10 and this year it's 30-plus," said Trill, who daylights as an insurance agent in Media.

Trill and her brother, Mike Jennings, came up with the idea after she was finding it more and more difficult to find charities that delivered toys that kids would see for the first time on Christmas morning.

"Not many people donate bikes because they are expensive and cumbersome," she said. "I found that a lot of charities that were giving them out ahead of time at their annual Christmas party. I was talking to my brother about it one day and he said, 'Why don't you start your own?'"

Through word of mouth and a lot of persistence, Trill found donors willing to purchase bikes for children they will never meet.

"It's all anonymous," she said. "The donor is doing it because it gives them a wonderful feeling and I never wanted the parents to feel ingratiated to someone."

"The bikes are a gift for them, too. They get to be Santa."

To identify needy kids, Trill partnered with one of her insurance clients, Chester Township Police Officer Laura Dixon.

"She had the passion, the dream and the bikes, but not the recipients," Dixon said. "One day, she was talking to me about it and said, 'Are there any people in your neighborhood who would be a good fit for this?'"

"Her only stipulation was that the kids could not receive the bikes before Christmas morning."

Dixon started with the families she dealt with as a DARE officer and then contacted a Delaware County Housing Authority worker, who made suggestions after looking over the list of residents at the Fairground Housing Project in Chester Township.

"I wrote the names down and then I went to the homes and spoke to the parents and told them all about the foundation," she said.

Due to the number of bikes this year, a dump truck was needed to transport them Wednesday from Trill's house to the Chester Township Police Station, where they were lined up in the locker room.

"Every officer who came into work (that day) was like 'Wow!,'" Dixon said. "I know a couple of our officers are already talking about adding to the stock next year."

After the sun disappeared Christmas Eve, Dixon and some other township workers began making the drop-offs. "Any earlier and the kids might find out," she said.

Santa's Wheels typically targets kids 10-and-under but the rules where bent a bit this year after Dixon located a pair of 13-year-old brothers in Chester who lost their home, and Christmas presents, to fire.

The mother of three grown children, Trill said Christmas has not been the same since her mother died Christmas Day 21 years ago.

"It left me with a sadness at Christmas time and I was looking for a way to turn that negative into a positive," she said. "I am one of seven kids and Christmas was always huge in our family. I thought this would be a good way to honor my mother and make a lot of kids happy."

"A child doesn't understand economic difficulties or that dad's been laid off or that mom's single now. If there aren't any presents on Christmas morning, they feel that Santa doesn't love them."

Dixon said some parents break down in tears when she drops off a bike.

"I'm lucky because I get to see the reactions," she said. "A day or two after Christmas, I snap a few pictures of kids with their bikes and send them to (Trill) so she can see how happy they are."

By TIMOTHY LOGUE tlogue@delcotimes.com

Thank you in advance