ANNA MARIA – Carl Augostini’s Christmas tradition is repairing and restoring donated bicycles to give to underprivileged youngsters.
Augostini, a retired electrical engineer, spends many hours in the garage of his Anna Maria home resurrecting the donated bikes that bring holiday joy to those who receive them.
Many of this year’s bikes were donated by Phil Fifield, who helps with the “Bike Ministry” at the Bayside Community Church in west Bradenton.
“They collect bikes from around the county and give them to people coming out of prison and to homeless people. They rarely have calls for children’s bikes so Phil gives them to me,” Augostini said on Friday, Dec. 12.
Augostini spoke while waiting for Devine Landscapes and Lawn Maintenance owner David Daniels to arrive with the pickup truck and trailer he uses to deliver the bikes to the Light of the World church in Sarasota where he is a member.
Augostini usually keeps the restored bikes in his garage, but this year’s gift-ready bikes were kept in a storage container at Custom Carts in Bradenton, owned by Kurt Didier.
“As I worked on them, he picked them up and put them in the storage container for me,” Augostini said.
“We’ve known Carl for 20 years,” Didier said. “He does repairs and works on chargers for us. We wanted to help Carl and his great cause.”
The annual bike retrieval day is a family affair and Carl’s youngest son, Craig, Craig’s wife, Lisa, Carl’s daughter, Carla, and Carla’s husband, Derek Dobbertin, help load the bikes into Daniels’ trailer. This year, they were joined by Carl’s older brother, Bill Augostini, a Columbus, Ohio resident who’s spending the winter in Florida.
“We’ve got 51 bikes and four scooters. This is a record for me,” Carl Augostini said. “All of them are for kids between the age of 12 and 2 or 3 years old.”
This year’s collection included “Paw Patrol,” “Barbie,” “Pinkalicious” and “Hello Kitty” bikes and some bikes came with helmets too.
“I love to see kids get bicycles. I want to get them off the iPads and off the phones and get out there and get that exercise and enjoy a bike ride. That’s why I do it,” Augostini said.
Last year, Augostini had to restore several bikes twice after Hurricane Helene’s storm surge soaked the bikes’ moving parts in corrosive saltwater.
“Everything went smoothly this year,” he said.
Light of the World Pastor Peter Greenidge helped Daniels retrieve the bikes.
“To see a man who is 87 years of age continuing to do this wonderful ministry of providing bicycles for the kids is awesome,” Greenidge said. “These bikes will be given away tomorrow at our Christmas Extravaganza. I want to express our gratitude to Carl for the wonderful work he’s done and the families he’s helped.”
Daniels, who spent a couple of seasons in the NFL as a receiver for the Seattle Seahawks, said, “I do this because I believe kids should have gifts at Christmastime – and one thing you must have as a kid is a bicycle, so you’re not watching the other kids riding their bikes and you don’t have one. We appreciate Carl doing this and to see the smiles on their faces when they receive these bicycles is priceless.”
