Bikes or Bust to celebrate 7th year

FORT WALTON BEACH — Most people have fond memories of their first bicycle. Some remember the banana seat, the purple glittered tassels hanging from the handlebars, the pegs on a trick bike, removing the training wheels or their first feeling of freedom.

Thousands of children in Okaloosa County and surrounding areas have never received a new bike for Christmas. A Fort Walton Beach radio station is determined to change Christmas memories for some of those kids.

Bikes or Bust 2017 has been scheduled in the Uptown Station parking lot in Fort Walton Beach from Nov. 30-Dec. 4. This year's goal is 1,000 bikes to be given to qualifying children.

The four-day event, hosted by Highway 98.1 Country, collects bicycles and helmets for the Emerald Coast Toys for Tots program. Toys for Tots, Shoreline Church and several military groups disperse the bikes to children from Panama City Beach to Pensacola and throughout Okaloosa County.

For 98 hours, afternoon disc jockey Bo Reynolds will be 30 feet above the ground in a scissor lift. Reynolds will have only a tent, a portable toilet and cold weather gear accessible to him. His meals and drinks will be roped up to him in a 5-gallon bucket, and he will continue broadcasting throughout the event.

Morning radio disc jockey, Scott Mallory, volunteered to be on the scissor lift for 98 hours in 2015-16 and is grateful for the community support.

Bikes or Bust is looking for new bikes and helmets of any size, but remember some teenagers need adult-sized bicycles for part-time job transportation. Adult tricycles are also appreciated.

According to Mallory, most donations come from private citizens who have added Bikes or Bust to their holiday tradition.

“They come out with their kids … (they) have made it their holiday experience,” he said.

In 2016, Bikes or Bust instigated competition among local fire departments, sheriff’s agencies and police departments. While delivering a bike on a fire truck ladder to Mallory on the lift, the Fort Walton Fire Department challenged every local firefighter to donate one bike.

For those who want to drive up and donate money at the event, there will be a kiosk to swipe credit or debit cards.