From baxterbulletin.com — this is such a touching story and a great use of older bikes…

BULL SHOALS — As a child, Niel Eskildsen never had a bicycle.

Now he’s on a mission to provide area children with bicycles for Christmas, buying parts and repairing donated bicycles to give to The Baxter Bulletin Christmas Wish program.

“It makes kids happy,” said Eskildsen, 84, of Bull Shoals. “Everybody wants a bike. Right now, with so many people out of work, they need it more than ever.”

Last year, Eskildsen and his wife, Betty, saw that many children requested bicycles through the Christmas Wish program. The program provides Christmas gifts for needy children in the area.

The couple decided they would forgo Christmas presents to each other this year and instead spend the money on repairing bicycles.

“We’ve been married 63 years,” Eskildsen said, standing in his crowded workshop, ready to put a refurbished wheel on a girl’s bicycle. “We agree pretty much without any arguments.”

Those in the community quickly heard about his project and donated about 20 bicycles in all shapes and sizes — so many that he doesn’t need any more donations.

Eskildsen buys new tires and other needed parts to make the bicycles safe. A bicycle shop in Mountain Home found out about the project when Eskildsen was in the store buying parts and offered to charge him only cost for parts, he said. Eskildsen estimates he’s spent about $700 so far on the project.

Despite his hours of devotion on the project, Eskildsen has never owned or ridden a bicycle.

He grew up during the Great Depression, living in a rural northeast area of Illinois. When he was 7, he was working 60 hour weeks on a farm and his 50 cents weekly pay was given to his father, who used it to buy groceries. Later, he served in World War II as a tail gunner with the U.S. Air Force.

Eskildsen finally retired at age 83, he said.

Now he can be found in his workshop, replacing tires and checking wheel and pedal bearings. He’s finished about 10 of the bicycles and hopes to have the rest finished by the beginning of December.

Eskildsen has plans to refurbish bicycles for children again next year.

“As long as the good Lord keeps me here,” he said with a smile.

jobratton@baxterbulletin.com

Tags: Bicycle, bicycles, buy, mountain, pedal, refurbishes, stand, used, wheel, wish, world

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