Nugent, 81, works for McMacken’s grocery store in Brookville. He holds similar giveaways monthly, but expects to give away between 700 and 800 bikes this November.
“I love the kids. You wouldn’t believe how happy they are,” Nugent said. “They’ve never had a bicycle. That’s hard to believe, but it’s true. And you take a family that’s got four or five kids, how are they going to buy bicycles, new bikes for all the kids?”
Nugent lost his first wife, Rosemary, in 2009. The couple had three children. Nugent’s girlfriend of 15 years, Carolyn, passed last June.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
“I lost my wife, my girlfriend and my dog. All I got left are the kids,” Nugent said.
Over the last 15 years, Nugent has given away thousands and thousands of bikes to families from as far as Columbus, Indiana, and even Toronto.
“I didn’t have a lot when I was growing up,” Nugent said. “I think that’s why God blessed me to do this, because I know what it’s like to look under the Christmas tree and find nothing there.”
Nugent began giving away bikes he repaired to the community, after being inspired by a local pastor named Joshua Grimes, who encouraged him to give them away in concert with the church’s food pantry.
“He said, ‘Just bring those bikes and we’ll give them away,’ and they went crazy,” he said.
Nugent also has a selection of toys to give away this year, including baby dolls and remote-control cars, and is holding a raffle for a few electric scooters, and $100 for a family’s Christmas presents.
However, the main event remains the bicycles, his stock of which has outgrown his yard at 142 June Place and now fills two additional sheds elsewhere in the region.
“People just donate them,” he said. “They drop them off, and then I fix them, and they don’t want to see a ‘For Sale’ sign on them. They give them to me because they know I’ll give them to somebody in need.”
For more information, visit David Nugent’s Facebook page.
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