A celebration of life for Samuel H. "Jack" Hairston III, known as "Jack the Bikeman" for donating repaired and refurbished bicycles to children and adults in South Florida, will take place Tuesday.
it spread as it was reprinted in other newspapers nationwide. the poem has been reprinted any number of times in the past 189 years. a reworked was published to remove the references to santa smoking. on the weekend before christmas we have the story of jack the bikeman. he is a guy who took a simple idea and made it into an annual christmas miracle. feel like a kid again. oh, yeah. reporter: remember the first time riding a bike? jack sure does. it was freedom. i was out of that crazy house that i was born into. and i was in an open world and i had control of the bike and it was wonderful. reporter: you could call him santa known as jack the bikeman. every year throughout the year he and his volunteers, some
i am here now. reporter: as christmas gets closer donations are still coming in. thank you so much. merry christmas. reporter: and then the day and the crowd arrives. i m excited to come here because i just saw santa claus. and i saw this one and i fell in love with it. reporter: more than 300 bikes given away, countless smiles. jack says delivering this kind of joy has actually delivered him from a painful past. loneliness. isolation. i probably would have already passed away. reporter: without this? yeah. reporter: this keeps you alive? i think it saved my life. reporter: and there is gratitude for the generosity. jack the bike man making christmas in florida seem a little warmer.
strikingly santa like can i pull on this? is it real? i guess it is real. reporter: revive, repair and renew hundreds of new bikes and then right before christmas they give them away to families new to the country or just in need. over 90% of the bikes that we give away are the only thing the kids will get for mchristmas. reporter: lopez was one of the kids. he got one of jack s bikes years ago and now he works with jack hoping to give other boys and girls their first set of wheels. you are giving away something and fixing it yourself knowing it is going to a good cause. it is life changing for these kids. they remember somebody did something nice for them. all i wanted was a bike. you give these bikes for free? where were you when i needed you? i was here. why didn t you give me a call?