ON THEIR BIKES

That time of year again. Our annual 3AW Variety Club Bikeathon. Throughout the day listeners pledged money to buy Christmas bikes for needy kids. They cost 200 dollars each. Every lucky kid also gets a free helmet and YOU – and your children -- can get to present the bike personally before Christmas.

The phone number  for Hinch Says readers, until midnight, is 1300 880 292

The Variety Bikeathon was done for the first time ever in Australia on struggling 3AK back in 2002. It was the brainchild of Doug Christie and I gave it as big a kick along as I could as a former Variety Club President. It was a struggle but we raised enough money for nearly 300 bikes. In recent years, on 3AW, we have bought more than 1000 bikes every year and we have seen a sea of bikes presented to kids at Jeff’s Shed, Federation Square, Docklands, and at country venues.

This programme has raised more money for more bikes than any other on 3AW so, please, don’t let me down this year. I’ll kick it off by putting my money where my mouth is again and personally donate five bikes from me and Chanel. That’s a thousand dollars. Imagine how it would be if, in the next two hours, the chief execs of 100 companies did the same.

As I have said before, some Aussie families can’t afford much for their kids and Christmas is a cruel and stark reminder of that fact. Christmas and kids go together. Kids and Christmas and presents go together. Kids and bikes go together. And some kids miss out.

Everybody remembers when and where they got their first two-wheeler. And I’ll tell you my story again. Just to get you into the giving mood.

When I was ten I got my first two-wheeler. I had worked hard at weekends and before school on my father’s milk run. I thought I might be rewarded with a bike for Christmas.

On Christmas morning I got home from the milk run and was disappointed there wasn’t one under the tree. But I did get a bike that Christmas morning. They had hidden it at the end of a long piece of string. I followed into the basement.
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And when I saw it, I looked at it and I cried.

I didn’t care that it was a second-hand bike.  Didn’t care that the peeling chrome handlebars had been gussied up with that silver paint they used to smear thickly on the old coal range.

Didn’t even care that it was a girl’s bike! It was MY bike. My first two-wheeler.

Believe me.  Each year I have personally seen these kids’ faces as they receive their new bikes and helmets. It is magic. It is Christmas magic.

So, for two hundred bucks donate a bike now.  Please.

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2008