When Scot Blevins entered the fifth grade last school year, he had no clue how to ride a bicycle. Just jumping on one, even with training wheels, made his heart jumpy. But his school had a partnership with the nonprofit Free Wheels for Kids, a program that recycles donated bikes. Through the partnerships, Scot and his classmates were learning not only how to ride, but how to fix second-hand bikes.
“I was kind of excited, but I was nervous because I had never ridden a bike before,” said Scot
Paula Blevins, Scot’s mother, made it her personal mission to get her son trained to ride a bike.
“I didn’t have a bike growing up, but my cousins did, which I would share with them,” said Blevins. “I definitely wanted him to learn how to ride a bike.”
Blevins works full-time while raising her three children as a single parent. She said there just wasn’t time to teach the kids how to ride a bicycle. She’s grateful the school's Physical Education department has taken on the bike program.
“It was a big help for him to learn how to do that at school,” Blevins said. “It was one less thing on my plate”.
Free Wheels for Kids started in 2010 and has been successful at repurposing more than a thousand bikes for kids in Wyandotte County. Not only has the organization given kids the recreational and transit benefit of riding to school, but it is also attempting to move the needle on the problem of obesity. Obesity rates in Wyandotte County are the highest in the state. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 35% of adult Kansans are obese.
As he approaches his nonprofit’s 15th anniversary, Founder and Director Lee Trotter says he is proud of its success. He says the nonprofit has collected 1,460 bicycles from community donations, fixed them up, and given them to kids during their school gym classes.
“That’s bikes that weren't out in the community before,” said Trotter.
This fall, Trotter's program will be working with three additional schools in Kansas City, Kansas: Emerson Elementary, M.E. Pearson Elementary and Argentine Middle School. They’ll expand to include Quindaro Elementary in the spring.
Trotter is an avid biker himself and delights in sharing his passion with school kids, watching them ride a bike for the first time, and love it.
“It's just a joy to see kids out on bicycles," he said, "and be with the students on their turf.”
But sometimes the job can be overwhelming. Yes, Free Wheels for Kids is getting an abundance of bikes, but Trotter is lacking in manpower to help him distribute them and offer training.
“I’m kind of doing this by myself,” he said, with frustration in his voice. “It can be as many as five to 25 kids. That’s quite a number of kids.”
Riding into the sunset
Trotter found what he hopes will be a small solution to his workforce problem, while ticking off another box on his agenda. He’d like to expand kids’ interest in riding bikes beyond going to and from school. He wants them to ride their bikes for fun — and exercise. So he’s added something called Earn-a-Bike lessons for his older kids. They can repair bikes for younger children to ride in exchange for earning a refurbished bike for themselves. Scot Blevins was a beneficiary of the program as a fifth grader last year.
Trotter said the program has fixed-up more than 50 run-down bikes. He takes pride in keeping these bikes out of the landfill, but also in his biking community that has stepped up in a big way to participate in this repurposing program.
“You don’t just give them to one kid. They get passed down to other kids,” Trotter explained. ”I see a lot of the Trek brand we’ve gotten rolling around when I’m out, and it makes me feel good seeing that.”
Scot Blevins, now a sixth grader, says his middle school doesn’t have the Free Wheels for Kids program. He said he’ll miss learning from Trotter, but plans to share what he now knows about riding and fixing bikes with his classmates and friends.
“I hope it means more kids wanting to learn how to ride bikes,” he said, “and that more kids can be seen riding bikes throughout the neighborhood.”
