St. Louis Bikes for Kids Program Provides 275 Bikes for Area Children

I started pestering my mom for a bicycle when I was about ten-years-old. The problem was that I had never really learned how to ride one. Then my uncle began secretly building me one out of old bicycle parts in the garage. Unbeknown to him, I snuck in the garage and watched the bike being born.

It took several months, but he had it done in time for my birthday. When it was time for unveiling, I faced the day with a mixture of joy and trepidation. I really wanted to have a bike like all of the other kids in the neighborhood had, but I was still afraid toi get on it.

And the other thing was that, even though my uncle had put a lot of work into rebuilding that bike, it still wasn't what I wanted. It was a 26" bike with balloon tires and all the kids in the neighborhood were riding the in-style banana bikes, or Stingrays.

The Stingrays were bikes that were 20"bikes and came in the latest psychedelic colors to suit the sixties, candy apple red and various other colors, all wit metallic glitter in them. Mine was red and white and had, (gasp), grips on the handlebars with streamers coming out of them. Something that you would see in the old-fashioned fifties.

So I refused to learn to ride it, even when they got me some training wheels. That really added insult to injury. If my friends saw me using training wheels, they would have laughed me out of the neighborhood.

So I learned how to ride on Billy Chapman's bike. He was deaf and dumb and I know that he couldn't tell the other kids.

But according to the St. Louis Front Page News, there are some physically and mentally disabled children who would love to have a bike given to them, no matter what the type. More than a hundred volunteers were at the Bikes for Kids program in Creve Couer for the event. The volunteers provided 275 area kids with mental and physical disabilities with their very first bike, and none of them complained that it wasn't the right type.

Source: http://www.slfp.com/SLFP-Kids.htm