Staff Photo by John Rawlston/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Carlos Dempsey, a welder at Callahan Mechanical Contractors, is the recipient of this month’s Jefferson Award. For more than 30 years, he has provided bicycles to needy children at Christmas.In 18 years on the job, only one child has ever seen him.
The project takes him all year, but it’s that one day — Christmas — that makes it all worthwhile.
Carlos Dempsey salvaged his first children’s bicycle in 1993 when his good friend took custody of his grandchildren but couldn’t afford to buy them bikes for Christmas. Dempsey, a welder and sheet metal worker, sent his wife to Hixson to buy three used bikes, and he set to work fixing them up.
At midnight on Christmas Eve, Dempsey delivered the bikes to his friend’s front porch, and no one was the wiser.
It wasn’t long before word got out, and neighbors and churches were calling, asking Dempsey if he could find Christmas bicycles for needy children in their lives.