Department of Correction<\/a> workers, at the event\u00a0dubbed \u201cChristmas in July\u201d at JHS 231 in Springfield Gardens, Queens.<\/p>\nAround 400 children living across the Big Apple received free bikes at an event hosted by the NYPD, along with the Department of Corrections, on Friday. James Messerschmidt<\/p>\n
NYPD workers provided the venue \u2014 the department\u2019s summer youth police academy \u2014 and helped teach bike safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt keeps the positivity going in the neighborhood, you know, it\u2019s a good thing to see NYPD, Corrections [doing this],\u201d said Michelle Pemberton, a 55-year-old DMV worker, whose grandsons got bikes at the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren grow up and usually look at these kind of figures and think of fear, and [authorities are] opening the door up to brightness for them and showing them that there\u2019s positive, like models from these agencies,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keyarah Robinson, 17,\u00a0scored a turquoise mountain bike at the giveaway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like it, I like it for my age,\u201d she told The Post. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very good for my height. I don\u2019t have to sit here and feel uncomfortable on my bike.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event, dubbed \u201cChristmas in July,\u201d took place at JHS 231 in Springfield Gardens, Queens. James Messerschmidt<\/p>\n
Tazion Authers, 7, landed a blue bike.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like this bike because it has blue stuff,\u201d the boy said.<\/p>\n
The children\u2019s mom, Patrice Tucker, 41, a day care worker who was at the event with her four kids, all of whom got bikes, said, \u201cIt\u2019s really nice.<\/p>\n
\u201cMerry Christmas,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Detective Tanya Duhaney of the NYPD Community Affairs Bureau said many of the children at the event live at nearby shelters.<\/p>\n
The majority of the children at the event live in nearby shelters, as Detective Tanya Duhaney of the NYPD Community Affairs Bureau said, \u201cIt is important to let our kids know that we do care about them.\u201d James Messerschmidt<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to let our kids know that we do care about them.\u00a0It\u2019s summertime, and we want to just engage them and also teach them to give back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here to do our jobs and at that is to protect and serve. And this is the service part of us giving back and showing these kids that we\u2019re not robots. We\u2019re human just like them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christmas in July, which began in 2018, raked in a total of roughly 700 bikes for kids, the rest of which will be given away at a later date, Duhaney said.<\/p>\n
The bikes were bought as part of a competition between the city\u2019s jails, organizers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is extremely special for us because one of our most fundamental values is an agency is care, and it\u2019s care not only for our staff and people in custody but also for the communities that we serve,\u201d said DOC Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach facility, they challenged each other and made it a real competition, and they were really excited to be able to do that so we could give back to the community,\u201d the commish said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things I would just want to point out is, children in our communities, regardless of social status, they should have access to bikes and books and resources that are critical to make sure that they thrive. And as a mom, that\u2019s really important. I\u2019m really proud of my Boldest family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019re braking cycles! Hundreds of needy Big Apple kids got free bikes at an event hosted by city…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":93857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5302,24023,245,44679,22744,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,5257,4413,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-93856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bikes","10":"tag-charity","11":"tag-children","12":"tag-christmas","13":"tag-department-of-corrections","14":"tag-metro","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkcity","19":"tag-ny","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-nypd","22":"tag-queens","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-us-news","29":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114919086833067659","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}