GAINESVILLE - Hall County Sheriff Steve Cronic and his courthouse deputies played Santa Wednesday to needy area children in need of a bike for Christmas.
The Sheriff said this is the 11th year of the Bicycle program; last year, with community support the department gave away 160 new bikes; this year the goal is 200.
"Ho,Ho,Ho," Sheriff Cronic said, laughing. "It felt great!"
"This is what Christmas is all about; to have the opportunity to give and make people's Christmas special, especially young people, does us a tremendous amount of good."
"Sometimes there's the misconception that our job is to lock people up, but we love the opportunity to help the community and this is just one other way we do that."
Karla Mevellin is a Gainesville homemaker whose construction worker husband is frequently out of state.
She said the Sheriff's program enabled her to provide bikes for all of her children this Christmas.
"With three kids it's very hard to get bicycles for all of them," she said. "I don't work because I have to take care of my kids."
Thursday
October 17th, 2024
3:33AM
