Spokeswoman tells how parish puts wheels on workers

In Bolton Landing, the wheels on bikes are going 'round and 'round -- ferrying guest workers to their many summer jobs, courtesy of the parishioners of Blessed Sacrament Church.

This is the third year the parish will loan bicycles to students from other countries who work in the summer hospitality industry -- and often at a second job, as well.

Judy Sammis, who organizes the effort, got the idea after seeing workers trudging through the town at midnight, walking from day jobs at The Sagamore resort to night shifts at Stewart's or Topp's convenience stores.

Immigrant background

Mrs. Sammis felt an affinity for the Russian, Polish and Jamaican students.

"My father was a customs inspector at the piers in New York City," she recalled. "He used to bring home sailors who had no families. We always had someone 'international' in the house."

A few years ago, Blessed Sacrament started to reach out to the 200 or so guest workers in town by holding a picnic for them, then by loaning out sports equipment for their use during the summer.

Parishioners "wanted to let them know we appreciate that they're here" in town, said Mrs. Sammis. "We couldn't run this place without them!"

Wheels

In its first effort, the parish collected ten used bicycles to loan to the students. Once word got out that Blessed Sacrament was looking for bikes, donations poured in.

"Some people don't know the difference between something you can fix and something you can't, but they all have good hearts," Mrs. Sammis said of the donors.

Town mechanic Mitch Monroe, who volunteers to maintain the bicycles, can often cobble together one good bike from the parts of two or three broken ones. "Mitch is such a great tinkerer," Mrs. Sammis boasted.

On the go

Three years into the program, the parish has amassed 70 bicycles -- so many that they can no longer be stored in the church's garage but are kept in space offered by the town.

Students find out about the no-cost loans through announcements at the parish, referrals from local residents and suggestions from the Chamber of Commerce.

As soon as the guest workers begin arriving for the summer season, the bikes are quickly snatched up.

In the saddle

Mrs. Sammis is responsible for fielding the requests for bicycles. "The kids that get here first like the nicer bikes," she said, laughing.

Other students will see a co-worker riding a particularly nice bicycle and request one like it, but they often have to settle for the more "well-used" bicycles that are left.

"They know to call me if they have a problem" with a bicycle breaking down, Mrs. Sammis added. "They call at the end of the season to let me know when we can pick it up."

Links in chain

The bicycles have led the organizer and students down the road to friendship. Mrs. Sammis fondly recalled one student from Macedonia who was studying to be a navigator. She helped him to get computer time elsewhere when the library's computers weren't available.

Another worker, a young woman from Ukraine named Susanna, was initially unhappy with her summer job but found a better one through parishioners at Blessed Sacrament. Susanna still keeps in touch with Mrs. Sammis and just emailed to announce her marriage.

Other towns have emulated Blessed Sacrament, starting loan programs of their own, but Mrs. Sammis said that only her parish doles out the bicycles for free.

She jokes that she's now known in Bolton Landing as "the bike lady. I enjoy meeting the kids. I feel like I'm carrying on my father's work."

(To donate a bicycle or learn more about the program, call Judy Sammis at 644-3509.)

(6/16/05)