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By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Daily
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The Bikers of Brooklyn Motorcycle Club provided a 150-bike-strong escort for Mr. and Mrs. Claus on Saturday, who were on their way from Sheepshead Bay to the Flatlands Family Residence — via the North Pole, of course — bearing truckloads of toys for kids in need.
“Those kids over there, they could really use it,” Santa told the Bay News.
Mr. Claus frequently gets a great deal of credit for his participation in events like Saturday’s toy drive, which he certainly deserves considering the time it takes traveling from his workshop up north during what is, for him, the busiest time of year.
But, in this event, Claus was only delivering gifts that had been gathered by the Bikers of Brooklyn for their annual toy drive, which the club hasn’t missed since beginning the charitable event in 1988, despite a few years when it would have been easy to call the event off.
“We almost weren’t going to do it last year,” said long-time club member Bobby Colon. “A lot of our guys got hit really bad with Sandy, in Sheepshead Bay and Gerritsen Beach. But, in the end, we just had to.”
Claus headed up the motorcade on his 2010 Harley Trike, a big, 1,600 cc, three-wheeled cruiser, which he purchased in an effort to persuade Mrs. Claus to join him on his motorcycle sojourns — she was reluctant to join him before on the two-wheeled variety of motorcycle, he says.
“At first, she wasn’t sure about it,” Claus said, speaking of his wife. “But once she got on, she didn’t want to get off.”
Along with the motorcycle club that gathered all the toys, Claus brought with him those elves in his employ who were certified to ride motorcycles and who, while certainly large and hairy by elf standards, had big hearts of their own.
“It’s funny to see some big grizzly guy, real mean looking, dressed as an elf,” said Colon.
Typically, the motorcycle club never visits the same place twice during its annual toy drives, but this is the second year in a row that the club has visited the Flatlands Family Residence.
Last year, the gang was so impressed by the effect its toys and other goods had on the families there, who were living in extreme poverty, that members decided they’d make an exception and come back this year.
“Those folks are really poor,” said Colon.
