Bicycles and Bibles

Getting ready for Christmas is a gargantuan undertaking for the family of Beaumont attorney and philanthropist Wayne A. Reaud, as the family-fueled Reaud Charitable Foundation undertakes the massive task of bringing joy and presents to 1,000 children – or more – every year in Southeast Texas. Through the “Bicycles and Bibles” program, which has grown exponentially over the last two decades, tens of thousands of children in Southeast Texas have spent Christmas morning with a brand-new bike to ride and a brilliantly-illustrated children’s Bible to read of the Good News that Christmas signifies.

Each child served by the Bicycles and Bibles program is also presented a plethora of presents to unpack for Christmas – roughly $2,000 worth of assorted goodies to astound the bright-eyed recipients. In addition to new Mongoose bicycles and storybook Bibles, children receive new winter coats, shoes, backpacks, clothes, footballs, basketballs, helmets, locks, soccer balls and candy galore.

“Since the holiday program began in 1999, the foundation has given away over 25,000 bicycles and Bibles to children who otherwise would not have a Christmas at all,” the Reaud family shared. Wayne Reaud started the annual event as a way for he and his family to give back to the Southeast Texas community where he was raised, and where he rode his first bike and read his first Bible.

Reaud has shared his fond recollection of the day he received his first bicycle and how blessed he felt in that moment. The two-wheeled transport was a treasured possession for the young Reaud, a showcase of the goodness of God and of his parents. Thinking back to that feeling, Reaud said he was called to share it with others.

The Reaud matriarch, the late Gena Reaud, is credited as the guiding light to Wayne A. Reaud and brother, Jon Reaud, following in the ways of the Lord.

“She helped teach us compassion for others,” Wayne Reaud said of his mother, a constant voice of spirituality in his life even after her passing in 2013. “Her teaching set the foundation from which this program sprang. I believe that if we can teach a child that the fundamentals needed for life are founded in the Word of God, he or she can formulate a code to live by each and every day.”

Jon Reaud, who manages the holiday Bicycles and Bibles affair, starts making preparations in February. It takes a lot of work to make Christmas happen for 1,000 kids every year – but it’s a labor of love Jon said he is happy and proud to be a part of.

“I do this every year, and it’s always a blessing my brother and I are happy to be involved in,” Jon said.

In years past, the event served as a massive party for the children selected to receive the Bicycles and Bibles gifts, with the recipients’ families likewise invited to participate in the pre-gifting celebration that featured cotton candy machines and ice cream, popcorn and Chick-fil-A, pizza and burritos, clowns and puppets, and more fun than can almost be imagined for a single day’s excursion. In a post-COVID climate, and with the flu running rampant, the 2023 edition of Bicycles and Bibles that took place Dec. 18 continued to social distance for safety purposes; yet, still, the Reaud family refused to let any of the Christmas cheer be dampened.

Costumed characters entertained children as the drive-thru Christmas party commenced; breakfast from Carlito’s Mexican Restaurant was still provided to all the attendees; Daniel Davis continued his collaboration with the Reaud family to serve upwards of 850 Little Caesars pizzas to families as they snaked through the line set up at Ford Park to shuttle through children and families with as little downtime as possible.

Already sorted before the children arrive are fully-assembled Mongoose bikes and 40-pound bags of Christmas joy, which are then loaded by volunteers into vehicles filing through the line as the children to receive the gifts beam with joy from inside the car.

“We have firemen putting in bikes on one side and someone putting in bags from the other side,” Jon said. From start to finish, the drive-thru takes about 30 minutes, thanks to the expert execution of production exacted by an army of volunteers. At the 2023 Bicycle and Bibles event, the Reaud family noted roughly 200 volunteers in attendance from YMBL, Young Life, the Reaud Honors College at Lamar University, and the Beaumont Professional Firefighters Local No. 399. “We still get the job done. We still make sure kids get presents for Christmas.”

Right before leaving the Ford Park complex where the event is held each year, each vehicle was loaded down with boxes of groceries and a turkey for Christmas dinner provided by Wayne Reaud and his family.

The Reaud Charitable Foundation, for decades, has always ensured a hot meal (or two or three for those who arrive extra hungry) for every attendee at the Bicycles and Bibles events, and, although the smorgasbord and accompanying festive communal celebration was canceled by COVID, the effort to meet Jesus’ commandment to ‘Feed my sheep’ was not lost.

“We want these kids to have a wonderful Christmas,” the Reaud family shared. “We don’t just hope for it, though; we work to make it happen as best we can.”

The Reaud Charitable Foundation and Beaumont Foundation of America spearhead the massive undertaking annually, and additional Christmas presents for every child in the 2023 program were provided by the families of Rudy Sotolongo, Glen Morgan, Robert Bertrand, and John Werner.

“What a blessing it is to be a part of these kids’ Christmas every year,” the Reaud family shared.