BIG BIKE BUILD

It felt like Santa’s workshop moved to the Alameda County Fairgrounds for the day when over 320 volunteers gathered to assemble 800 new bikes on December 7th. The fourth annual Big Bike Build sponsored by Kids Bike Lane began with excitement as twenty teams of ten or more opened boxes and began assembling bikes. Once assembled, the bikes were delivered to a team for quality control who checked every bike to be sure it was assembled correctly. Members of the Green Team moved bikes from teams to quality control and then to the charity staging area where the Charities Team organized the bikes and helped load them into trucks that arrived every 15 minutes to be distributed by 24 charities throughout Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. In addition, the Green Team collected, flattened, and piled up all the cardboard boxes. It was a busy, great day! Many exclaimed, “Now I’m ready to celebrate Christmas!”

A highlight of the day was when Lily received her three-wheel bike that will enable her to join her family on bike rides on the Iron Horse trail near their home. Her face lit up as she took her first ride ever on a bike and those watching realized what a difference this bike and all the bikes they were assembling could make in the lives of each young person receiving a bike and helmet this Christmas. On December 14, Kids Bike Lane had the privilege to give another three-wheel bike to Austin who will be able to join his brothers and friends on bike rides. As we watched Austin grin as he mastered riding his bike we couldn’t stop smiling too. These two bikes, plus another three-wheel power-assisted bike that will be given to a young woman were made possible from donations to the Gerald Kruse Memorial Fund that was established to honor one of KBL’s founding members who died this past summer. The memorial fund provides bikes to special needs riders.

Kids Bike Lane (KBL) is indebted to the Alameda County Fairgrounds for donating three buildings to conduct the Big Bike Build and Steve Howard of Livermore Cyclery for ordering and assembling the two special bikes.