Volunteers build 325 bikes for children in need as part of Waste Connections' annual holiday event

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A garbage disposal company rallied volunteers in Oregon to build and distribute bicycles to children in need this holiday.

Three local Waste Connections branches that serve Northwest Oregon — Arrow Sanitary Service, Kahut Waste Services and Hudson Garbage — teamed up to build and deliver 325 bikes.

"This is one of the events that we hold annually that we all look forward to within our organization," said Josh Brown, the district manager of all three sites. "Our employees live and work in these local areas, so it's very rewarding for us to be able to give bikes back to the local families that might not otherwise get one at Christmas time."

Waste Connections began their Annual Holiday Bike Build in 2001 in Texas. Since then, the company has taken the tradition nationwide, including in Oregon.

For the local event, spearheaded by Arrow Sanitary, the bikes were all assembled earlier this month at all three sites. Employees across the three locations spent the entire year raising money to support the initiative, such as through collecting cans, Facebook fundraising and employee prize incentives, organizers said.

"Every year, we set a date to essentially build and, you know, put all the bikes together as a group. We invite our vendors, we invite our families — our families of our employees — and have a fun event where we build them," Brown explained.

The 2024 Annual Holiday Bike Build in Northwest Oregon produced more than double the amount of bikes compared to last year's 150.

"This year, we had a family member of an employee that was struggling, so we donated a bike to them," Brown said.

To help get them into the hands of families, the finished bikes are donated to local organizations each year, including The City of Estacada, DHS, Rainier Giving Tree, Safe of Columbia County and Headstart, Canby Kiwanis, Sandy Kiwanis, The Canby Center, Play Grow Learn in Gresham and others.