New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
On Wednesday, Hampden County Deputy Bob “The Bike Man” Charland, who runs Pedal Thru Youth, received a Facebook message with an article of a 6-year-old boy in need of a tricycle for special needs.
Deputy Charland knew he had two such trikes, so he looked at the article and realized that it was not a local child in Massachusetts but a boy in Elyria, Ohio. So he reached out to the Massachusetts State Police Springfield barracks commander Lieutenant Jon Provost for help. Lt. Provost then contacted the State Police Office of Media Relations to see if they could help with arranging a relay to Ohio. A message was sent to New York and Pennsylvania State Police and Ohio State Highway Patrol asking for assistance in delivering the tricycle to the boy. All three departments immediately agreed to help and Thursday arrangements were made to use Route 90 for a relay of the trike in the back of cruisers from Springfield, Massachusetts, to Elyria, Ohio.
At 6:30 a.m. on Friday the trike was loaded into Trooper Moran’s cruiser in Springfield. Trooper Moran and recent 85th RTT graduate Trooper Torres headed west, meeting Trooper Chandler of the New York State Police at the Massachusetts-New York line, where the trike was transferred to Trooper Chandler‘s Cruiser. Trooper Chandler then drove west, meeting Trooper Johns in Syracuse, New York, and the trike was transferred to Trooper John’s cruiser. Trooper Johns drove his portion of the route and then handed the trike off to Sergeant Rhoney in Victor, New York, who brought it to the Pennsylvanian-New York state line.
There he meet Trooper Arrington of the Pennsylvania State Police who took custody of the trike and brought it across the top of Pennsylvania to the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. There he met Lieutenant Jackson, the station commander for the Ashtabula, Ohio State Highway Patrol Post. The final handoff was made to Lieutenant Dunbar and Trooper Castillo, Elyria Post, who drove it to Elyria. The bike traveled almost 600 miles in 12 hours through 4 States.
The bike was delivered to Silas Oliver along with a helmet from the Ohio State Police. Thanks to the efforts of all those involved from Deputy Charland who built the bike and started the ball rolling to all the Troopers, Sergeants and Lieutenants who assisted in the relay and those who helped organize this joint venture to bring some happiness to a little boy. Also thanks to Fox 8 news who published the story which set off the chain of events.
The effort was assisted by First Sergeant Kevin Flynn of the New York State Police and Sergeant Ray Santiago of the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Both helped coordinate the efforts in their respective States with Sergeant Santiago helping in the final delivery.
All photos by Massachusetts State Police:
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