73 kids can look forward to new bikes

A successful fund drive by corporate and employees of Lift Technologies raised enough money this year to guarantee new bicycles for disadvantaged youth in Oconee County.  Seventy-three bicycles were delivered Saturday to the Toys for Tots program at Seneca’s Blue Ridge Community Center.

Stephanie Jackson, who is a Senior Design Engineer at Lift Tek, collects money from Lift Tek employees for a few weeks in Nov/Dec each year to purchase bicycles for Oconee Toys for Tots. Stephanie says, “We started in 2015 and donated 16 bicycles.  We have donated bikes at Christmas each year since 2015. This year we purchased 73 bicycles for Oconee Toys for Tots.   This is our largest donation to date! From 2015 through 2021, 100% of the money collected was donated by Lift Tek employees.  However, seeing how important this cause is to the employees, the company agreed to make a donation to purchase bikes in 2022 and 2023. Now,  the employee contribution makes up about 70% of the overall money collected, and Lift Tek (a division of Cascade) donates the rest.  This gave us the opportunity to buy even more bikes. We are proud to be a part of this effort and help kids in our community.  We believe every child deserves a bike for Christmas at least once in their lifetime, and we are happy to be a part of making that possible.”