Salem church collecting bicycles for kids affected by Hurricane Harvey

To encourage donations, the church's pastor is spending this week on the roof.

SALEM, Va. – A local church is taking a different route in helping hurricane victims in Texas. 

CommUNITY church in Salem has launched Wheels for Hope, an effort to collect 1,000 bicycles for children in Houston to be personally delivered this Christmas.  

To encourage people to donate, the church's senior pastor, Tom McCracken, is spending this week on the roof of the community church without food. He will have a partial office for the day and a tent for the night and will not leave the roof or eat until at least 250 bicycles or enough money to purchase that many bikes are donated.  

"For me, this is great because the kids aren't being left behind. It helps the parents too because their resources need to go to rebuilding. They really aren't going to be buying Christmas presents," said Tom McCracken, senior pastor at CommUNITY Church. 

The church is planning to deliver the bicycles the second week of December.

To donate, you can reach McCracken at 540-529-7843.

So far, the church has raised more than $3,000 and collected about 100 bicycles.