ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 5, 1996 TAG: 9612050046
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
Slam Duncan's going for a grand.
The J-93 radio personality plans to hover 150 feet above a Tanglewood Mall parking lot until he collects 1,000 new bicycles for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve's Toys for Tots campaign.
At 6 a.m. next Thursday, Duncan will begin a 100-hour "Bikes or Bust" broadcast from a trailer hoisted high above a mall parking lot that faces the Roy L. Webber Highway in Southwest Roanoke County. He doesn't intend to come down until 1,000 bicycles are donated - or at 10 a.m. Dec. 16, whichever comes first.
Staff Sgt. Steve Gardner, who coordinates the Toys for Tots program for the Marine Corps Reserve Unit in Roanoke, will join Duncan in the trailer, as he did last year.
"With a 1,000-bike goal, we would reach approximately one-tenth of the needy children in the Roanoke area alone," Gardner said. "If we could get 10,000 bikes, that would be one bike per child. I don't know if we can do that, but we'd like to see 100 percent involvement."
Last year - the bike event's first - Duncan and Gardner spent three days inside a trailer 93 feet above a Tanglewood parking lot. Their goal was to collect 93 bicycles for needy children - a lofty goal, considering that the most bikes the Roanoke-area Toys for Tots campaign had ever received was 12.
They collected 93 the first day. By the third day, they had 620.
"You know what? I am no more confident about the event this year than I was last year," Duncan said. "You just never know. We could have all of our ducks in a row and have bad weather. Last year, we had four beautiful days. There's just so many things that could trip us up."
Four years ago, Duncan came up with the idea of somehow rising high above the ground and not coming down until he collected a sizable number of bicycles for needy children. He had dropped off some Angel Tree gifts at the Salvation Army headquarters in Southeast Roanoke and was asked to volunteer at the organization's annual Christmas distribution for low-income families.
"Through volunteering, I had a chance to meet families one-on-one," Duncan said. "I found out where their hearts were. I worked on trying to pull this together."
The bicycle idea didn't come together until last year. Duncan found a Salem company that was willing to donate a crane and an automobile dealership willing to donate a trailer - a state-of-the-art model, equipped with refrigerator, microwave, toilet, shower, television and VCR.
"We weren't roughing it by any stretch of the imagination," Duncan said.
This year's event will feature interviews with local, regional and national celebrities who phone or drop in on Duncan's 100-hour broadcast. A Bid-a-Bike auction will be held Dec. 15 at 3 p.m. Among the prized items to be auctioned is a guitar autographed by country and western artist Garth Brooks.
Duncan said he was amazed last year at the generosity. Bicycles came from corporations with deep pockets and children who broke open their piggy banks to help the poor.
"We had kids who came out with their parents and walked through these bikes as their parents explained to them why this was being done," Duncan said. "And these kids were going home and getting their piggy banks and telling their parents, 'I've got to go back and donate my piggy bank.'
"That's where these bikes came from - and everything in between."
For more information, call the Marine Corps Reserve Unit in Roanoke at (540)520-5556 or J-93 radio at 342-3131.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB