Local motorcycle club delivers Christmas gifts to Salinas families in need
SALINAS, CALIF. (KION-TV) - Christmas came a little early for some families in Salinas this year.
On Saturday, the rumble of motorcycle engines was a welcome sound as the One Brotherhood of Monterey County club held their 10th Adopt a Fam Jam.
The bikers rolled up to homes and apartments to deliver gifts to families in need.
Mark Lacuata, the co-founder of the One Brotherhood Motorcycle Club, said that the brothers look forward to helping families have a Merry Christmas.
“You know each one of us in our club has come from different walks of life,” Lacuata said. “We've, as you can tell, we're multicultural. We decided, you know, let's give back to the community and other communities like myself, born and raised on the East side of Salinas.”
The group is sent names of local families that need help buying holiday gifts.
Brothers then choose who they can bring some extra cheer to.
“These kids' faces light up whenever we show up,” Lacuata said. “Especially when we go to the apartment complexes and we come in, man you got kids, it's like a Christmas story. It's like a movie. You got kids running down from their apartments and it's here and they're coming down and we just start handing out gifts.”
Joshua Marajo, was one of the people that received gifts today. He expressed tons of gratitude towards the Brothers.
“Very grateful to be experiencing this today,” Marajo said. “It’s like a dream come true.”
Brianne Silvestre is the daughter of one of the organizers and said that the One Brotherhood in Monterey County not only brought gifts for the kids, but also a little something extra for the adults.
“We like to give the adults gift cards so they can go and use some you know, wherever they like,” Silverstre said. “We give them gift cards to Target, Safeway, you know, things like essentials that they need to help them out, get them through the holidays.”
Overall, the Brotherhood wants to show people that despite all the leather and skulls, they're dedicated to making a difference.
“One of the things when the public sees a biker or a biker club, a motorcycle club, you know, they see the patches and they get intimidated.” Lacuata said. “We automatically get profiled, even when we're smiling at them. And what we try to do is try to achieve the permanent positivity you know in the biker world.”
The One Brotherhood of Monterey County is already accepting donations for next year.
If you'd like to contribute, you can do so at this link - onebrotherhoodmc.com.
