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![\"MIKAELA](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3836198_web1_251219-Cycle-with-Santa-00020.jpg\")
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MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
Event organizer Kerry LeBlanc leads the Cycle with Santa bike crew through downtown Winnipeg on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cCycling with Santa is just going for a ride out in the community and trying to bring some love and joy to the streets through humour, through just riding our bicycles,\u201d LeBlanc said. \u201cIt originated with me just going for a ride one year, wearing a Santa suit, and it\u2019s grown to a 14-year now annual event, where we have as many as 25 riders come out and understand the need for joy and love in the streets at this time of year.\u201d<\/p>\n
LeBlanc was adamant that the event would go ahead, snow or shine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to be out on the road for 90 minutes,\u201d he said. \u201cThe folks that we visit, the charities are doing it every day, 24-7. We think it\u2019s a little bit of a challenge for us for 90 minutes, but just think of our people living in the streets every day, and the charity groups that are working in the homeless sector every day fighting the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year, the Brothers of the Fork crew \u2014 a casual group of philanthropic cyclists and humanitarians \u2014 also came bearing cash.<\/p>\n
The group donated $20,000 to five charities, including Resource Assistance for Youth Inc. and Inner City Youth Alive, which received their donations during a small gathering at True North Square before riders set out.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n The weather was frightful but that didn\u2019t stop more than a dozen riders from braving heavy snowfall and blustery winds for the 14th annual Cycle With Santa on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got plenty of youth that are sleeping outdoors,\u201d said Kate Sjoberg, CEO of RaY Inc. \u201cWe don\u2019t have enough housing in the city for the folks that really need it.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is going to continue to be an issue for a little bit longer, and it\u2019s really our privilege to work with people every day who know how to survive and trust us enough to help them a little bit along the way here and there.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t Victoria, a young woman who accessed RaY more than a year ago while experiencing homelessness, said the organization has played a crucial role in her life.<\/p>\n \u201cRaY\u2019s helped me quite a bit and not just finding in a new home, but getting to be more out there and more socialized, and I always feel like I have a safe place to go when I need to,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s counselling. There are people I can talk to, and the best part is they make me friends. So it makes me feel included, and I feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Bill Diehl-Jones hands out socks and candy canes to Brian (left), Henry, and Arnold at 190 Disraeli on Friday.<\/p>\n From True North Square, riders made stops at city hall and Centennial Concert Hall before heading to N\u2019Dinawemak, their first major destination of the afternoon .<\/p>\n \u201cEvery shelter has a closing time for cleaning, and people get stuck out on the street for that hour to hour and a half every single day,\u201d said Nicholas Candaele, one of the N\u2019Dinawemak\u2019s directors. \u201cSo what Kerry and his crew is doing out there is amazing. It\u2019s really showing effort\u2026 and what our relatives go through every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n Each night during the winter months, roughly 200 people access N\u2019Dinawemak\u2019s Disraeli Freeway shelter, with daytime numbers more than doubling as people arrive for meals, outreach and other services.<\/p>\n Those inside the building Friday received an added boost of holiday cheer, as the Downtown Community Safety Partnership dropped off dozens of blue backpacks filled with treats and essential winter clothing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s never too much,\u201d Candaele said. \u201cWe also get quite a bit of backlog stuff for the rest of the winter, which is awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Linking Hope gives out bags outside of 190 Disraeli on Friday.<\/p>\n scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Scott Billeck Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade\u2019s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.\u00a0 Read more about Scott<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
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