Legion Riders save Christmas for family devastated by fire

The organization tries to do something special at the holidays, along with its other charitable work.

Christmas came a little early for a Mon Valley family who lost everything in a recent house fire, as the Charleroi American Legion Riders treated them to a $1,300 shopping spree at Walmart in Rostraver Township.

Started years ago as a bunch of guys interested in motorcycles at American Legion Post 22 in Charleroi, the group now comes together to do benefit runs for worthy causes. Around Christmastime, they try to help a family in need.

John Cooper, the organization’s president, said they started giving back last year by helping a local grandmother on a limited budget get Christmas gifts for her granddaughter she adopted.

“That’s how it all started,” Cooper said. “It went so well, we decided we are going to try to do this every year because it really made that little girl’s Christmas. We decided to try to do this differently every year.”

Cooper said when people see motorcyclists in a big group in the area, they are usually doing a benefit run to raise money for a good cause.

He said some motorists don’t understand that they are doing something for charity and they are cut off on the road — causing accidents — when they are just trying to help for the community.

The benefit ride they did this summer was to raise money for Tyler Stone and Jessica Abbott, who were in a motorcycle accident. Miraculously, they both survived their horrific injuries, but Abbott lost her leg and Stone suffered from traumatic injuries as well. They both continue to recover.

The Legion Riders wanted to help more local families this Christmas, so they contacted Charleroi Middle School to ask if there were any kids going through bad times who needed a little bit of cheer for Christmas. They decided to help the Tominello family, who lost everything in a house fire this year.

Juleigha and Alaina Tominello, both 10, and their brother, Austin, 7, got the chance to pick out Christmas presents. The family is still looking for a place to live right now, but their mother, Bethany, said the kids said it was the best Christmas ever.

“I told her at that time that we had a limit of $500, but I understood she had three kids and that wouldn’t buy very much,” Cooper said. “I had a meeting, we bumped it up to $250 a kid so that would be like $750 and then, believe it or not, we actually had an active military Navy guy home on leave that heard what we were doing.

“He kicked in another $300 and then another guy sitting kicked in another $50 then one of my riders kicked in another $200, so it ended up being a $1,300 shopping spree.”

According to Cooper, the kids each got around $300 from the riders to spend on whatever they wanted. They checked out, put all the toys in their vehicle and spent another $300 to buy groceries.

“So they are going to have a really nice Christmas meal and then they will restock their fridge and freezer with enough to last them a little while,” Cooper said. “It was really nice. Just the smiles on their faces are priceless, so it really helped them out.”

Cooper added that the reaction makes him want to do this every year, along with knowing that it makes a difference in a child’s life.

“When you see their smile, the smiles say it all. When you see their smiles, you see everything you need to know,” Cooper said. “That’s why we do it every year. It’s to change a life.

“At some point in our life we have all come across the point where we all struggled. I have kids and there have been years where I didn’t have a lot of money to spend on them and I kind of felt bad because you always try to do more for your kids than you had when you were younger, to make it better for them.”

Cooper added that almost all children look forward to getting something for Christmas, but sometimes the parents aren’t in the position to do that, including the Tominellos after the fire took everything the family owned.

“Trying to rebuild with three kids and she’s a single mother trying to rebuild their life and trying to provide for her kids I’m sure is a struggle,” Cooper said. “So as Legion Riders, we just try to help people that need help. The way I look at it, it’s not changing the world, but it’s changing the world for those three kids. It’s changing Christmas for these three kids. They got enough this Christmas to really remember.”