Livermore Preschool Teacher Becomes ‘Bike Angel' to Hundreds of Valley Fire Victims

To live in Lake County these days is to be reminded, every single day, of the devastating power of nature. The scars of September's Valley Fire can be seen all over places like Middletown.

How nice it must be, then, for those residents to come face-to-face with a one woman force of nature working to help them recover.

Her name is Candy Alcott.

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Alcott is not a relief worker by training. She is a preschool teacher from Livermore. She did, however, spend years living in Lake County. So when pictures of the fire and the destruction left in its wake flashed on her television screen, she was moved to tears.

"When I saw the sign that said 'Welcome to Middletown' on fire, I couldn't believe it," Alcott said.

Feeling that she had to do something, Alcott packed her purple minivan with supplies for those who had lost or been forced from their homes and began making multiple trips to the fire zone.

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It was before one of those trips that members of the bike repair class at Livermore's Del Valle High School offered her 18 bicycles to give to kids who had lost theirs.

Alcott lined the bikes up in front of the Middletown Lions Club in late September. They were quickly snapped up. It was then, though, that a young boy came asking for one. "I didn't have any more to give him," Alcott said.

So she promised to come back with one for the boy.

"That's where the promise comes in. I made a promise to one little boy," Alcott said.

She did indeed return, but not with a single bike. She gathered 300.

Even with that many bikes given away, Alcott says she still had a list of names asking for one. So that is why she returned, yet again, last weekend with 500 bicycles in tow.

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Alcott says she understands that some might not think a kid's bicycle is critical to a family recovering from such an event, but she sees it differently.

Alcott says the bikes not only provide a distraction and escape for the children, they provide a respite for parents who are then able to focus on the job of recovery.

"There are now 830 bikes in Lake County," Alcott says, "and if they kids are happy, mom and dad can deal with the issues they have to."

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