Making a difference in one’s community – one’s world – can take on many forms. And the results of those good deeds touch many in the here and now, while forming a lasting legacy that touches future generations.

That is why The Mexico Ledger honors Hidden Heroes.

In 1967, Richard Mahoney got his first bike for Christmas. With his dog Tippy in tow, Mahoney rode that bike from his home at 512 S. Olive St. to downtown Mexico and all the way to the stockyards on Fairground Street, getting into all of the mischief that was to be expected of a 12-year-old boy.

Many of Mahoney’s best memories were made on that bike, and he felt like he needed to share that joy with the children in his community this Christmas.

On Dec. 20, Mahoney, with the help of his family and volunteers, hauled more than 170 bicycles to the Elks Lodge, each one addressed to a child who had no idea what was coming to them this Christmas.

Journee’s bike

Mahoney’s project began as a simple act of kindness.

One day, while driving back home from Walmart with his sister, Anne Cline, it hit him — he needed to give away a bicycle.

“I went to Walmart the next day, and I picked out a lady with a little girl pushing a cart,” Mahoney said. “It scared the hell out of me, and I went back home.”

But Mahoney was determined and he built up the courage to try again the next day.

Back at Walmart, Mahoney approached a mother and her daughter under the guise of a grandfather who wanted to buy his granddaughter a bike for Christmas.

Sheila Haynes and her 5-year-old daughter, Journee Feger, agreed to help and the first bike they picked out was Journee’s current bike, which she mentioned to Mahoney she had outgrown.

“I knew right then the Lord gave me the right girl, because she needs a new bike,” he said.

Mahoney pushed Journee up and down the aisles trying out bikes until he saw her face light up — they had found the perfect one.

“When we got back, I said, ‘I want to thank you, Miss Journee, for showing me how to get a little granddaughter a bike your size, and I’m going to buy this bike for my granddaughter, but I'm also going to buy it for you too,’” Mahoney recounted.

‘I had an idea, but I didn’t have a plan’

Haynes made a post about the encounter on the New Good Bad and Ugly of Mexico, MO, Facebook group thanking Mahoney, and the post went viral.

Mahoney’s daughter, Amy Jackson, said it was that post that really ignited the project.

“He’s been this way my entire life,” she said. “He’s always been this way so it didn’t shock me at all.”

Soon, people who had heard Mahoney’s story turned out in droves to contribute to his mission that had blossomed from giving away a bike or two into a massive community project. Mahoney was determined to give every child he could the opportunity to have a bike this Christmas.

“I had an idea, but I didn’t have a plan,” he said.

Mahoney is a retired veteran who served in the Army for 12 years before becoming a car salesman in Texas. He retired seven years ago and moved back to Olive Street across from his sisters Cline and Julia Johnson.

After the donations started coming in, Mahoney worked around the clock fixing bikes and traveling all over central Missouri to pick up even more. Every penny donated to him was spent on those bikes.

Cline said she would see him working on the bikes every day that the Kansas City Chiefs weren’t playing.

When they were ready, he would post the bikes he had on the Facebook group and find homes for them, recording the child’s name in his “Santa Claus book” for the big giveaway.

He quickly realized he had more bikes than he knew what to do with, so he filled up Cline’s garage and, eventually, two additional storage units with children’s bicycles.

The week leading up to the massive give-away was overwhelming for Mahoney in the best possible way.

“In the 60s, people didn’t have money to buy a bike — they don’t have money now,” Mahoney said through tears. “I hope to do this every year.”