Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Hurd familiy helping Santa

A local family is pitching in to help Santa out this year.

The Carl Hurd family has donated 30 bicycles to be given to needy children this Christmas season. Last year, Hurd said, the family made the decision to do this, but was unable to get everything in place before the holidays.

This year, though, everything fell into place and the bikes will be given away. There are six bicycles in stores around Prescott that people can sign up to win. There is no entry fee for this contest. The stores are: Sexton Foods, the Farm and Garden Store, the Bank of Delight, the Bank of Prescott, Western Auto and Gilbert Lumber.

For the rest of the bikes, people can submit names of needy children to the Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce. Hurd took the basic information to Mary Godwin, executive director of the Chamber, and got her to help set things up.

The reason bikes have been placed in area businesses, he said, is to help generate traffic in the stores and get people to shop locally.

According to Hurd, the majority of the bikes came from Toys R Us though some came from Wal-mart. He said the family bought some discontinued bikes from Wal-mart, then went to Toys R Us, where the manager said he would take the bikes from old stock, build them and give the Hurds a good deal. We went over with a trailer and brought them back.

When asked why the family decided to give bicycles away, Hurd said he never had a new bike when he was young, and his wife never had a bike of her own. Its something we wanted to do for the kids. Thats why we went through the Chamber. We also saw something like this last year where someone gave away 500 bikes. We couldnt do that, but are doing what we can.

Godwin said the Chamber sent letters to schools, churches and civic groups for the names of needy children who otherwise wouldnt be getting much for Christmas.

When the names are in, 24 will be picked to receive the new bicycles.

The Hurd family wanted to do something to get more people in stores and help the local merchants, she said, so they put six bikes in six stores based on the traffic volume in the businesses. Anyone can sign up through Dec. 19, and six winners will be drawn Tuesday, Dec. 20.

Additionally, the Hurds have put up their light tunnel for Santas Cottage again this year. The family built the cottage last year, giving children who visited a toy as they visited with Santa.

Santa and Mrs. Claus will again be at the cottage as they prepare to deliver toys around the world on Christmas eve.

The Christmas Cottage will be opened from 6-8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 16 and Saturday, Dec. 17. Children will again be given a stuffed animal when they visit and talk with the Santa and Mrs. Claus. Parents are urged to bring their cameras and take pictures of their children with the jolly old elf and his wife.