Motorcyclists Come Bearing Holiday Gifts at Evans Park

Hundreds of motorcylists bearing thousands of gifts made the run from Tampa to Seffner for the 18th Annual Cookson Hills Toy Run on Sunday, Dec. 4.

(Brandon Patch photo and video coverage at .)

Among them was Linda Martin, riding in on her 1986 Electric Glide Classic, with hundreds of wrapped gifts to distribute.

“I buy gifts all year long,” she said. “I find $20 gifts for $5. That’s what I look for all year long, sales.”

Bearing one gift or hundreds, riders rolled into Evans Park, behind Burnett Middle School, in a show of compassionate solidarity for children whose families are in economic need and for kids and adults who live with special needs.

Ask Martin why she does and she answers: “Why not?”

“What’s Christmas all about?” she said. “Kids. And if you can help out the kids in your local community, why not?”

Ruthie and Arthur Lund looked on as Martin removed 208 wrapped gifts from the bags and totes she carried on her bike.

“How the heck does she do it?” Arthur Lund said. “She’s here year after year after year, and her packages seem to be getter bigger and bigger.”

Lund said he has been participating in toy runs “ever since I was a little kid," including about six years for the Cookson Hills Toy Run.

“This is the first toy run I’ve ever done," he said, "where you give the toys directly to the children and you get to see the smiles on their faces as they open up their gifts."

Nearby stood Declan Radford, who this year participated in his “very first” run, and with him he brought one gift.

He had no idea the enormity of the undertaking, he said.

“I didn’t realize it would have this many people,” Radford said. “I’m pretty shocked, actually, and the ride was pretty nice. It’s amazing, absolutely amazing. I absolutely love it.”

The 20-mile toy run begins at the Veterans Memorial Park and Museum in Tampa and ends at the park adjacent to Burnett Middle School, off North Kingsway Road in the Greater Brandon community of Seffner.

The event is organized each year by Sheri and Bill Brown.

"We started with 45 friends at a children's home that had something like 17 kids," Bill Brown said in an . "We were getting more gifts than we had kids so we had to invite more kids and that's how we grew over the years."

The children's home, Cookson Hills, today goes by another name and doesn't have an association with the annual event. The event retains the name, however, because it has come to signify an event that is easily recognizable.

"It's turned from a biker event to a community, family event," Sheri Brown said last year. "It's all about everybody coming together. If everybody didn't show up the toy run wouldn't happen."

The Browns work with schools, special needs centers, organizations and caregivers to find the children and adults who need toys for the holidays.

“We’ve got to have help next year, we need corporate donations,” Sheri Brown said at this year's event. “We have to be able to pay for the event. Bill and I can’t do it alone anymore.”

That the need is growing is hard to dispute; that the interest is deep and the rewards overarching are there for the seeing at Evans Park.

“We provide children, forgotten children, and special needs children and adults with Christmas presents and a picnic,” Sheri Brown said at Evans Park this year. “Our is a unique [toy collection and distribution] because you see people unwrap the gifts you give them. You get the ‘thank you’ and you get the hugs and kisses in return. You get to be a part of child’s life at least for that one day. And who knows? You might change a child’s life.”

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