A decade ago, Mike Carroll, a former student of RJ Lenarcic at HCCC, contacted him asking if he could find five children to purchase new bicycles for; children whose parents’ financial status precluded such.
Lenarcic contacted Julie Metz at the Herkimer BOCES Migrant New York Educational Program. She coordinates that branch of the Gram Lorraine Children’s Christmas Program.
He asked her about Mike’s request and she immediately responded that she could. Lenarcic then discussed with his Herkimer County Hunger Coalition’s Board of Directors the possibility of matching Carroll’s offer and they unanimously agreed to it.
The organization under the leadership of Kelly Brown remains committed to the project. And so, since then, each June 10 deserving children meet at Walmart on a Saturday morning and choose the objects of their affection (and helmets).
This Saturday (June 14, 2025) at 11:00 A.M. 12 children will be enjoying the same experience-the cost of the two extra bikes assumed by the Greater Herkimer Lions Club, one of the Valley’s most active charitable organizations.
This year’s event will be in honor of Fallen Star Army Sgt. Devin A. Snyder from Cohocton, N.Y. who was killed in Afghanistan on June 4, 2011, by an IED explosion. She was 20.
Note: The HCHC’s Fallen Stars Memorial Program has honored each of the 328 men and women killed in Iraq or Afghanistan by means of a scholarship or community/children’s charity (e.g. Army Cpl. Michael Mayne Cookie Corps).
Lenarcic stated,“Bikes and kids go hand and hand. To see the smiles on their faces as they pick out theirs is worth every penny spent. This charity is something other organizations in the area might consider down the road.”
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