The city sidewalk was a busy sidewalk in front of 2211 Wilton Drive on December 20. At 11 a.m. that morning, Wilton Manors police, doing their best take on “Miracle on 34th Street,” had barricaded the right lane of southbound traffic to accommodate the large panel truck which had been ordered to take possession of fifty brand-new bicycles. Their destination: Kids in Distress.

That Tuesday morning was the culmination of a month-long campaign to solicit bicycle, toy, and other donations to benefit the Fort Lauderdale counseling and health center with a mission to prevent child abuse, preserve families, and treat children who have been abused and neglected.

Nick Berry and Shawn Bombard, the owners of Shawn and Nick’s Courtyard Café in Wilton Manors, had put out the call to friends, associates, and those imbued with the holiday spirit to donate what they could, but especially in the form of new bikes.

Berry and his life partner, Joe Bush, had already collected close to thirty bicycles by December 17, the night of their annual by-invitation-only Christmas Benefit. They had also collected a large amount of unwrapped toys for kids through teens to deliver to the child welfare service organization located on N.E. 26 Street in Wilton Manors.

Courtyard Café and its owners have a long history of working with area service organizations and charitable groups, both within and outside the LGBT community, an abbreviated list of which includes Hospice of Gold Coast, Poverello, Broward House, the Pride Center at Equality Park, Women in Network, the Ryan White Foundation, and Kids in Distress.

Bombard, Berry, and Bush were rewarded for their individual and collective efforts with a major pay-out: dozens of toys, several hundred dollars in cash and checks, and the final two-wheel tally: fifty bicycles donated by noon on December 19.

The gifts were taken by truck at around noon on December 20 from Courtyard Café to Kids in Distress several blocks away, where they will be distributed on Christmas Day, along with, one imagines, presents delivered the previous night via reindeer.

Of collecting nearly a dozen more bicycles than he had anticipated, Courtyard’s Berry remembers the happy truce he and boyfriend Bush had made with the two-wheelers, all in the name of bringing the Christmas spirit to some neglected kids.

“They were taking over the entire house,” Berry laughs. “I had bikes in the garage, bikes in the main hallway. At one point we might have had a couple in the guest bathroom. But it was worth it.”