Barnstable County Sheriff’s inmate Timothy Storer loads a bike onto a trailer parked beside the KMart parking lot in Hyannis. KMart sold the bikes at a generous discount to Cape Cod Cares for the Troops. But if you want to follow this Christmastime story further along, you’ll just have to keep reading. It’s a small part of a much larger tale of heroism and suffering, but with a happy ending.
Here they are, 21 bikes in all. Cape Cod Cares volunteers later reloaded the bikes seen here onto an even-larger freight truck, laden with these and other Christmas gifts destined for young children. That truck ended up down at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where the gifts were passed out to the sons and daughters of GIs recovering from severe combat wounds suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are being cared for at a long-term convalescent facility located at the fort.
The bike loading, as you can see, is underway. Michelle DaSilva, director of Cape Cod Cares, spearheaded the group of volunteers who made the trip to Virginia this holiday season. Once again two members of the Sheriff’s Office, Captain Joe Brait and his boss, Dave Neal (both coincidentally involved with this inmate work program) made the trip as well. There were off the clock, of course, and paying their own travel expenses. The county’s Special Sheriff, Jeff Perry, has joined them in past years.
Inmate Kevin Didick loads up the final bike of some very special cargo. “Imagine the look of the faces of these kids,” mused Sheriff Jim Cummings, who has supported Cape Cod Cares for the Troops with similar inmate assistance and in countless other ways. “What Michelle, her son Dylan, and others have done for our troops these past ten years is little short of amazing.”
Media release and photos furnished by Barnstable Sheriff’s Office
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