For Her Brother

What motivates people to do charitable work?

My guess is that one common (if not the most common) impetus is the memory of a loved one, whether a blood relative, friend or anyone else who matters to the person doing the work.

Such is the case for Kay and Craig Collier.  For the past 27 years, the Brownwood, Texas residents have been collecting bicycles and distributing them for Good Samaritan Ministries and other non-profit charities.  The need is great in their area which, in spite (or some would say because of) Camp Bowie, has lower income and higher poverty rates than average for Texas or the United States.

Kay Collier (left) with Marie Smith of Good Samaritan Ministries (Photo by Derrick Stuckly)

One of the needy could have been Kay's brother, had he not become her brother.  Her parents adopted Sidney Collier Hanks through Catholic Charities when he was six years old.  For his first Christmas with his new family, Kay's mother asked Sidney what he wanted from Santa.  "He said it didn't matter, he never gets what he wants, but he really would like to have bike," Kay recalls.  

He soon came to be known "Sid on the Bike" in the community.  "He wore out a bike, and sometimes my mom would have to get him two a year," she remembers.  He rode "everywhere," she says, continuing even after getting his driver's license at age 18.

So far, that sounds like a typical story.  That is, until you consider a handicap Sid had to overcome:  one leg was 12 inches shorter than the other.  At the time he was adopted, he was living in a group home where the foster mother made booties but not shoes.  "My mother found someone to get him shoes made that were built up and very heavy."  Still, Kay says, "he rode that bike anyway."

Phlebitis developed in Sid's shorter leg.  Finally, he needed hip surgery because the shorter leg was causing so much stretch to the normal one.  He was on the verge of being relegated to a wheelchair when he passed away, at age 28.

At that time, Kay, now a receptionist for Good Samaritan Ministries, and Craig were expecting their first daughter, whom they named Sidney.  She is now 27 years old:  the same age as the couple's bicycle charity.