Gonville School pupils enjoyed their first ride on the new bikes after an assembly presentation. They were disappointed when eight were stolen last month. Photo / Supplied
Christmas has come early for Gonville School pupils.
Eight bikes that were stolen from the school shed have been replaced with brand new ones courtesy of Geoff Davies Builders and Velo Ronny's Bicycle Store.
Geoff Davies, Catherine Cheatley and Dayle Cheatley attended a special school assembly last week to present the upgraded bicycles to excited children.
Gonville School principal Greg Elgar was thrilled with the donation.
"They saw the article in the newspaper. They thought it was really sad because they know how much it costs and how hard it is to get funding for these things," Elgar said.
"They wanted to do it anonymously. They didn't want any fuss or fanfare, but I said 'no, we need to share this great news with everyone else in Whanganui'".
Staff and pupils were disappointed when returning from school camp last month to discover that their bike shed padlocks had been broken and the door forced open.
Eight bicycles were missing, size 20 and red. Two of them were almost immediately recovered when someone handed them in to Whanganui Police.
It is the second time in two years that the shed has been targeted. Six bicycles were stolen in 2016, all of which were recovered thanks to community and police efforts.
Elgar said the timing was suspicious.
"It's just a shame that obviously some people have decided this time of year is a good time to go shopping, same as last year, just before school closed.
"I don't like to say it, but they might be Christmas presents."
The school has looked into further security options for the storage shed, but it is an unpowered site, so cannot use a security camera.
Six of the bicycles are still missing.
"We have got some feedback from various people in the community and I've passed that on to the police," Elgar said.
"That certainly looks promising, I'm sure that we'll probably recover most of them."
Pupils broke in the new, upgraded bicycles following the assembly and will be looking forward to using them for leisure and competition in 2019.
The donated monitor helped an 89-year-old patient to venture outside on walks.