Community rallies around trail volunteer after bike goes missing
Rachel Basinger
Curt Beal (left) was happy to have his stolen bike returned once it was fixed up by Andrew Stout (right) at Bikes Unlimited in Connellsville.
Curt Beal, above, was happy to have his bike back after it was stolen off his porch recently.
Above, Curt Beal is happy to have his bike back after it was stolen off his porch recently.
For three years, Curt Beal of Connellsville has been helping the Connellsville Garden Club and Yough River Trail by watering and weeding flower beds throughout the city.
But a few weeks ago, the volunteer was faced with adversity when the mountain bike he used to get around town turned up missing from where he left it outside of his home.
After speaking with the police, Beal pleaded in a social media post to share his story of the stolen bike, in the hopes it would be returned.
“Without the bike, I will be hindered from doing volunteering this year,” he said in the post.
Ted Kovall, president of the Yough River Trail Council board of directors, said, for about three years now, Beal has been tending to the flower beds along the trail as well as throughout different areas of the city, including the beds in front of City Hall, by the Carnegie Library and various parking lots.
The post garnered much attention, and began to be shared among community members.
In the meantime, Kovall said that they usually present Beal with some gift cards each year as a thank-you for his volunteer work, but decided instead to take one of the many unclaimed bikes that are turned in and get it tuned up to give to him.
Gary Stout and his son Andrew Stout at Bikes Unlimited in Connellsville, tuned up the bike, free of charge, that Kovall had picked out.
Soon after Kovall presented Beal with the tuned-up bike, Connellsville Police Chief Bill Hammerle said the department got a call from a gentleman saying he had found the missing bike between Martins grocery store and the trail, where the shelters are.
There was some minor damage to the brake cables and a few other things, but the Stouts once again fixed up the stolen bike free of charge and presented it to Beal.
“Curt helps out on the trail and gives his time to the community, so it was the least we could do to give back in some way,” said Andrew Stout about fixing up two different bikes for Beal.
Beal said he is very grateful to the community who kept their eyes open for his bike.
“It’s because of the community that I have my bike back,” he said. “I called the pawn shops, the scrap dealers and even the bike shop to see if anything had come in, so for someone to find it and call the police, I was just so grateful.”
Now that Beal has his bike back, he said he will definitely be locking it up or bringing it inside, so this will never happen again.
As for the extra bike that the trail council had presented to Beal, Kovall said it will be a bike at the ready, in the event another situation arises.
Connellsville Mayor Greg Lincoln said what’s amazing about posting something like this on social media is how effective it is.
“People are so willing to give out information,” he said. “Overall it’s a wonderful tool to use with social media.”