Missoula County Sheriff's Office Deputy Ryan Dunster presents Seeley Lake resident Tristan Petersen with a new bicycle. "The program is amazing and I'm glad they are doing it," said Petersen's mother Gabby. "Tristan thought it was cool that Ryan brought him a bike. He wanted to ride it that night."
Burt showed up at a house with a single mom and two children. The children gave Burt this homemade Christmas Cards and a plate of cookies. "We get all the thanks we need from interacting with the families," Burt said.
MISSOULA - "My favorite part is the joy and surprise on their faces to get something extra for the Christmas holiday," Missoula County Sheriff's Office Deputy Ryan Dunster said about handing out bicycles to local children for the past five years. "It is just a good thing, we are able to give back through this donor."
This past holiday season, the Missoula County Sheriff's Office carried on the tradition of delivering bicycles to area children. According to Missoula County Sheriff's Office Captain Bill Burt, the bicycles have been donated by a local Missoula business that wishes to remain anonymous. The program provides an opportunity for law enforcement to build relationships with community members as well as help some families that are struggling.
"[The business] has never wanted to take any credit," Burt said. "They have always wanted to create a way for deputies to connect with families in the community and kids in the community."
Burt estimates the program has been going on for around 10 years. He said the local business orders the bicycles unassembled. Then for one day, all of the business's employees take a break from their regular work and gather in a warehouse for a big bike build. This year they added scooters to the assembly line.
Burt said they start by reaching out to area schools and counselors to identify families that would benefit from the program and then randomly distribute the rest. Depending on the need, Burt said he has brought bicycles as far north as Arlee and down to Florence.
The Sheriff's Office school resource officers and deputies distribute the bicycles. Sometimes the bicycles are given to the parents to give to their children for Christmas and other times the deputies give them directly to the kids.
This year they gave away 75 bicycles and nearly 40 scooters. Of these, 18 bicycles and one scooter were distributed in Seeley Lake and Condon.
"It is hard because there are only about a 100 bicycles [each year]," Burt said. "At the end of the every year it always turns out that we could have used more. That is the only downside because you don't ever want anyone to feel left out."
Burt said Sheriff TJ McDermott makes the program a priority encouraging all the deputies to participate. He even makes deliveries himself.
"No one is forced to do this but the people that get involved, we get all the thanks that we need just by interacting with these folks and their families," Burt said. "Every year there are joyful tears involved in it. It is very heart touching."
"We get to talk to people in a positive light, meet people I would never have gotten to meet and have positive encounters," Dunster said. "This is a time I get to talk to people when it is good not just bad."
Burt said deputies are encouraged to take photos with the children and their families to share with the sponsoring business at their annual meeting. Since all the business's employees are involved with the program, it is a big deal for them to see and hear the stories.
"The joy on the face of these kids," Burt said trailing off. "They are pretty excited,"
Burt shared the story about randomly giving a bicycle to an eight-year-old boy named Henry who was walking with his mother by one of the schools in Missoula. When he pulled over he asked Henry if he had a bicycle. Henry's mother answered that he has a used one but it is not in very good shape and it is way too small.
When Burt asked Henry if he wanted a new bicycle, Henry replied, "How much?"
Burt said he explained to Henry that it was for Christmas. Henry was still skeptical as Burt lifted a new bicycle out of the back of his truck and gave it to him. Without taking his eyes off the bicycle, Burt said Henry used a very serious tone when he said, "When you first stopped, I thought you were here to arrest my mom."
As Burt was going to pull away, Henry pulled himself up and spoke to Burt through the open passenger window.
"You boys sure know how to spread the Christmas spirit.'" Burt said laughing. "It was just a cute and great interaction. It was random and sporadic. It is just fun."
Along with the joy of giving and watching the excitement when a child receives a new bicycle, Burt said this story exemplified the deeper meaning for the program. He explained that before Henry received the bicycle, when he saw a black and white Sheriff's vehicle, it meant someone was going to jail. Now Henry has had a positive interaction with law enforcement and hopefully that shifts his perspective.
Dunster echoed the relationship-building component of the program. Working in the local schools in Seeley Lake, he said children that may be reserved or unsure of him when seeing him in the school, respond with smiles, fist bumps, hugs, big hellos and waves after they receive a bicycle from him.
"It teaches the kids that they can trust us, we are there to help them and we are human. I think it is good that kids learn at an early age that we do good things," Dunster said. "It changes their whole view of what deputies do and what they are here for."
"It is an honor that this business chooses us every year to do this," Burt said "We feel super blessed and it has made a wonderful relationship between us and them as well."
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