HOUSTON -- Three days before Christmas, more than 20,000 brand new bicycles will be loaded into more than 100 large trucks and delivered without notice to thousands of underprivileged children across the Houston area.

At least that was the plan for Houston-based Elves and More, until the cargo ship many of those bikes were scheduled to arrive on bumped the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge last week, spilling 58,000 gallons of oil.

The group's founder, David Moore, said the ship was headed to Shanghai to pick up 20 cargo containers filled with 12,000 bicycles.

"Now, we're scrambling," Moore said. "It's the busiest time of the year. It's the biggest upsurge in shipping worldwide. The seas are full of ships, but there are no empty ships out there, especially ships leaving China coming to the west coast or Houston."

Once the bikes arrive from China, they will still have to be assembled.

It is a job that requires help from thousands of volunteers, who are only given a set number of days to utilize the space at Reliant Center.

"So now we have to worry about do we need volunteers at the beginning, do we need volunteers at the middle or the end?" Moore said. "Are the bikes going to get here on time? Are we going to have to build the bikes in two days instead of 12 days? And how are we going to get them out to the kids?"

Moore says it is a "doable" task, but the organization must make alternative arrangements within the next week.

"If we don't get it put together before Thanksgiving, we're going to be late. If we're late, we'll lose our space, and I don't know what we'll do," he said.

If the shipment is late, the bikes will be delivered after Christmas.

For more information on Elves and More, and how you can help, visit www.elvesandmore.org