Giving Back….

For the past couple of years our riding group has been involved with a really cool charity. Turning Wheels for Kids (http://www.turningwheelsforkids.org/). They assemble and donate bikes for under privileged kids that otherwise wouldn’t get a bike.

Founder Susan Runsvold recognized for her work

The majority of the giving happens at Christmas time following the Big Bike Build, but from what I understand, there are bikes given out at other times of the year as well.

Our involvement to date has been at the Big Bike Build which, in addition to doing something good, is a tremendous amount of fun. This year, I think they said there were 900 volunteers who helped assemble and give away 2400 bikes. It’s an amazing site. You walk in the morning of the build to an empty building with nothing but boxes down the middle aisle. Then at the end of the day, the boxes are gone and replaced by 2400 sparkling new bikes….

This year though, several of us are taking our involvement to a deeper level as we’re helping to launch the Tri-Valley Chapter of Turning Wheels for Kids. Our goal is fairly aggressive in that we’re hoping to buy, assemble and donate 400 bikes this coming December.

I’ve always believed in the phrase that for those to whom much is given, much is expected and I really enjoy being able to help support causes or charities I believe in. I feel like my family has been abundantly blessed and giving back is the least we can do. This though, is a whole new experience for me. I’ve never really been involved in something like this, at this level. The planning required and the fund raising to be done seem almost overwhelming when I sit down and look at the list. The good thing is though, that I’m not alone. We have a very smart, committed group of people that are going to work to pull this off. And, of course, we have the resources of the founding Turning Wheels board to help us get this thing rolling.

It’s actually pretty exciting to be a part of something like this although I know it’s going to be a lot of work and a really great learning experience. We’ll be reaching out to local corporations as partners, working with various groups for both donations from them and others who will be asking for bikes to be donated and all the while focusing on helping kids get a bicycle…..what could be cooler than a bunch of cyclists helping get kids on bikes of their own?

Stay tuned, as things move forward you’ll be hearing more about it here….