Austin Joy, 8, paused amid the seeming chaos of Cub Scouts and disassembled bicycles to say he knew exactly where the rebuilt rides were headed.

"They're going right to the North Pole," Austin said. "Santa's going to pick these up."

Austin and a half dozen other members of Pack 8, along with parents and a couple of veteran bike mechanics, ignored the threatened ice storm Saturday afternoon to gather at East Coasters around a collection of cast-off bikes they planned to turn into Christmas gifts for families at the Roanoke Rescue Mission.

Alex Brown, 8, who claimed five years of riding experience, said he figured the bikes would be a good surprise for someone. Eric Wiseman, 7, who'd helped his dad rebuild a collection of bicycles at home, said the goal Saturday was to send something "to kids who want a bike for Christmas."

Hunter Thomas, who lives in Roanoke's Raleigh Court neighborhood and whose son is a member of Pack 8, said he makes a practice of collecting discarded bicycles and restoring them. When he recently spotted about 20 left out for garbage pickup -- someone was cleaning out a property -- he claimed them immediately. Thomas called Ted Gates, the service manager at East Coasters, and the two quickly decided that 10 of the bikes could be easily repaired and given to children at the Rescue Mission's shelter for homeless families.

Gates, a former Washington, D.C., bike messenger, knows the Rescue Mission well. He puts in long hours volunteering there as payback of sorts for help he received when he first arrived in Roanoke as a self-described unemployable alcoholic.

"I am a testament that the mission's recovery program works," he said.

As for the mission's more general work providing meals, shelter, clothing and more, Gates said, "There's nothing like the mission in a lot of big cities. They do a tremendous thing with the underprivileged."

Pack 8 Scoutmaster Steve Gross is also the Rescue Mission's controller and thought Scouts could earn merit badges by helping with the work. When East Coasters owner Bob Best heard of the project, he volunteered to donate tires, tubes and other supplies and to host the repair gathering.

On Saturday, Best called the repair and giveaway a "win-win" situation for his business and said he'd like to see it become an annual event.

"I just said, 'Go for it, Ted,' " Best recalled Saturday, smiling.

So with Gates and former East Coasters mechanic Rob Issem, who returned to help out, the Scouts and some of the more mechanically inclined parents labored over the Huffy Sea Stars, the Kent Teen Talk, a battered Schwinn and something called a Piranha that seemed to have an extra loop of metal in its frame. The Scouts practiced the intricacies of replacing tubes and tires, and learned the hairspray trick for installing new handlebar grips.

"It's like sugar water," Gates told the Scouts. "And it makes the grip slippery enough to go on at first, then when it dries it sticks it on hard."

The bicycles were looking considerably fresher when the shop's closing time arrived.

Gates said he planned to put in some time in coming days cleaning chains, replacing a few seats and scouring rust from wheels or other shiny parts.

Tucker Gross, Steve Gross' 9-year-old son, called it an afternoon well spent.

"It's good to know that they have to go somewhere where people need them," he said.