TFM just heard about this event hosted last weekend in San Diego from BikeRadar (yes, a seemingly unrelated source). Check out what this San Diego non-profit got done on one evening, though, even in tough economic time.

The 2009 Bike Art Spectacular raised more than US$14,000 for the San Diego, California-based non-profit Kimberlee’s Bikes for Kids this past Saturday, raising funds to distribute free bicycles, helmets and locks to underprivileged 1st – 3rd graders.

“Being the first year we had no idea what to expect,” Dan Gindling, president of Kimberlee’s Bikes for Kids, told BikeRadar Tuesday. “We definitely had exceptional art and a few exceptional art lovers….

The most expensive piece, “Tour de France”, a 6’ x 3’ hand-painted aluminium wall sculpture by Israeli artist Dave Gerstein, was sold to a New York collector for US$6,600. The collector also bought the gallery-framed Leroy Neiman “Indoor Cycling” limited edition print for US$2,575.”

LeRoy Nieman donation to Kinberlee's Bikes for Kids

Even more noteworthy after the fact of the event, Dan Gindling, president of Kimberlee’s Bikes for Kids, has established an eBay store so that that art & children’s patrons can browse, bid and buy more art online in support of their cause.

Please visit Kimberlee’s online art auction here.

You can read the rest of BikeRadar’s write up of the event here.