ASHLAND – Two dozen Taft Intermediate School fifth graders took a spin on their brand new bicycles Thursday, thanks to the Ashland City Bike Project.
About 10 anonymous donors gave money to the new initiative, which is facilitated by Ashland Bike Company with support from Ashland Main Street.
Bike recipients– one boy and one girl from each fifth grade class– were chosen by their teachers based on need as well as on essays they had written about bicycling.
Each kid received a Specialized Pitch, a high quality, entry level mountain bike that Ashland Bike Company owner Tony Bunt said can be ridden in neighborhoods or on trails and should last a long time. The students also received helmets, bike locks and t-shirts.
The giveaway was a surprise for the kids, but the school had been working with Ashland Bike Project since January to select students and gather information to determine kids’ bike and t-shirt sizes. School staff also called the kids’ parents or guardians to arrange transportation for kids to get the bikes home.
“Some of the parents were just so taken aback by it,” assistant principal Tim Keller said. “A couple parents said they didn’t have a bike for their kid and it would be hard for them to get one.”
Another family had recently lost everything in a fire.
Each bike retails for about $500, according to Bunt. The Specialized company cut the group a deal on the bikes, and local donors gave enough money to cover the approximately half of the retail price that remained. Donations also covered the cost of the helmets and bike locks, and Advantage Marketing donated the t-shirts.
“This is the kind of support that really makes Ashland a special place,” Keller said. “Someone just seeing a need and trying to fill that gap. That’s amazing.”
Bunt emphasized Ashland City Bike Project is not about the donors or his bike shop but about getting kids on bikes.
“The whole point of the Bike Project was to bring about a focus on youth cycling, to make it something that’s more accepted in Ashland, because we really don’t have that many great places to ride,” Bunt said. “Once someone picks up cycling, they can do it literally the rest of their life. It’s a healthy lifelong habit.”
The project was inspired by a similar initiative in a community in Idaho, where Bunt lived and worked in a bike shop 12 years ago.
“They had a big thing like this, except one business actually donated all the bikes,” Bunt said. “So when we opened, I reached out to all my business friends and said, ‘Hey, this is something I want to do.'”
Bunt envisions Thursday’s giveaway as just a first step in the larger umbrella of Ashland City Bike Project. From here, he and other Ashland City Bike Project participants will plan and lead youth bike rides and work to make Ashland more bike-friendly for families. He also hopes to facilitate more bike giveaways in the future.
After teaching the bike recipients the ins and outs of their new bikes, talking with them about bike safety and helmet use and leading them on a few laps around a loop in front of the school, Bunt asked the students to tell their parents to find Ashland City Bike Project on Facebook for more information about organized rides. The group is open to anyone, he said, not just those who received a bike Thursday.
Donations to Ashland City Bike Project can be made to Ashland Main Street with “Bike Project” in the memo line.
