Family told ‘get on your bikes’

By Kelly Yates
A CLYDE family that gives away free bikes to disadvantaged children is facing eviction after a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) hearing at the Frankston Tribunal Court last week.
Kevin and Chrissy Bronson have been doing up bicycles and giving them away for more than 15 years under their charity organisation, Santa’s Workshop, Bronson’s Free Bikes for Needy Kids.
Now the couple and their three-year-old son Matthew have three months to vacate the property.
The couple live in Clyde North on a 162-hectare property, and Ms Bronson said the property owner offered them a portion of the land a few years ago.
But now the owner wants the land back, leaving the family with nowhere to go.
“The owner said we could do what ever we wanted for as long as we wanted,” Ms Bronson said.
No documents were signed in the property negotiations.
“It’s just one word against another word,” she said.
The Bronsons’ charity travels around Australia about five times a year, giving out bicycles to underprivileged children.
“Something just drives me to do this. It’s the joy of giving. We do this because we care,” Mr Bronson said.
He personally delivers the bikes in his modernised, revamped old ambulance.
“Bikes are the biggest things in children’s hearts and I didn’t have one when I was growing up, so I want to give them the one thing they want, a bike,” Mr Bronson said.
Every Christmas Eve for five years, the Bronsons would give away between 3000 and 6000 bikes at Melbourne Town Hall.
They receive no financial support from the Government. “We do it off our own backs, we have terrific sponsors and without them none of this could be possible,” Mr Bronson said.
The Bronsons are also involved with community martial arts classes, music performances at local nursing homes and offer marriage and drug counselling.
“People know we are out here,” Ms Bronson said. “If we go, there will be no-one to help them.”