Me, riding Sky Blue at age 10 on the Redwood County farm where I grew up in southwestern Minnesota. Photo taken in 1966.
LOOKING BACK ON MY CHILDHOOD, I cannot imagine life without a bicycle. My bike was my imaginary horse, my daredevil stunt car launched off makeshift ramps, my mode of transportation down county and township roads.
If not for my maternal grandfather, though, I never would have owned a bike. My parents could not afford bikes for their kids. So Grandpa would scavenge the local dump for bikes he could repair, repaint and deliver to me and my five siblings.
It mattered not that my bike, which I named Sky Blue, wasn’t new. I owned a bike. I was a happy kid.
That childhood memory bubbled to the surface Monday morning when Dee Bjork at The Crafty Maven in downtown Faribault handed me a flier about the Free Bikes 4 Kidz program. I wanted, no, needed, to learn more about this partnered local give-away by So How Are the Children and Allina Health (presenting sponsor for the non-profit Free Bikes 4 Kidz). So I phoned SHAC Director Carolyn Treadway.
The give-away “targets kids whose families couldn’t otherwise afford bikes,” says Treadway. Kids just like me and my siblings decades ago.
As Treadway and I concur, a child’s desire to own a bike is universal, transcending time.
On December 7, Treadway expects SHAC and Allina to give away 65 – 75 bikes to pre-registered Faribault youth. She’s actively searched for kids—handing out fliers to teachers, drawing on her connections through SHAC and dropping in at places like St. Vincent de Paul, a childcare center and a laundromat to find families needing bikes. She’s currently placing names on a waiting list.
Kids from Northfield and Steele County will also get new or gently-used and refurbished bikes at the Faribault Middle School pick-up site. All told, Treadway anticipates 150-175 bicycles to be distributed along with new bike helmets, compliments of Allina Health.
Among those expected to show up are an east-side Faribault woman who will claim seven bikes, Treadway says. The bicycles are for her neighbor children whose father, in a state of inebriation, destroyed their bikes. The woman will store the bikes in her garage until spring.
Treadway enthuses about such a neighborly caring spirit and about the volunteers who repair the used bikes and assist with the give-away. She’s also grateful for those who donate bikes, some of which were collected at the Faribault Bike Rodeo in October. Allina Health coordinates numerous collections of bikes to be distributed in Minnesota and western Wisconsin.
Another local recipient is a Faribault father who signed his 12-year-old and 14-year-old up for Free Bikes 4 Kidz. When the dad asked if he could also get a bike for his 18-year-old, Treadway assured him he could. The older teen attends the Faribault Area Learning Center and a bike will enable him to stay in school because he will now have a way to get there.
Stories like that truly show the humanity of this program aimed at getting bikes to kids so they will have, as Treadway says, “access to safe and healthy physical activity.” Or, in the case of the 18-year-old, access to education.
The program also builds connections and a sense of community care.
Yet, the bare bones basics benefit of Free Bikes 4 Kidz is to get bikes into the hands of children who otherwise would not have a bike of their own. The program has grown significantly in Faribault, where only a dozen free bikes were distributed two years ago.
“Owning a bike,” Treadway says, “is very near and dear to a child’s heart.”
It is the universal childhood desire which transcends time. Just ask me. I’ve never forgotten Sky Blue or the grandpa who scavenged the dump so I could have a bike.
A bike pulled from my garage and photographed. I then edited the image to illustrate this story.
FYI: To learn more about the non-profit Free Bikes for Kidz, click here.
For more information on Allina Health’s partnership in the program, click here.
To learn more about So How Are the Children, click here.
© Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
What a fabulous program this is and yes—-the bike was a great source of pride and freedom and independence to me when I was younger. It was so easy to hop on and ride wherever my little legs could peddle. This is an amazing program and it was so nice to meet Dee on Monday!!! A great lady with a big heart and a love of her community. Thanks for sharing her and The Crafty Maven with me!
Dee is a gem, isn’t she? I’m glad she gave me that informational sheet on Free Bikes 4 Kidz. It’s a great program.
It sure looks like it will bring a lot of happiness to a lot of kids!
I expect those bikes will do just that.
fantastic idea, all kids should have bikes, then the batteries taken out of all their devices and outside they go!
I totally agree. Kids need to spend more time outdoors at free play instead of on their devices or in all those organized activities which take them here and there and everywhere in their parents’ vehicles. Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against organized activities. I just think kids are involved in too much and therefore are losing their ability to use their imaginations and entertain themselves. I know it’s a different world than when I grew up, but still…
I just love the picture of you on your bike. You look so full of joy.
It is a sweet photo, isn’t it? And you are correct. I was one happy 10-year-old.
I have so few childhood photos of myself, so I treasure each one for the memories they evoke.
Great – I had no idea my Dad did this for you kids. How great!! And of course he didn’t really have money either so for him to do this is fantastic.
Yes, it was a wonderful thing your dad did for us.
This reminds me of all you and Aunt Rae did for us, too. Maybe to you it was not a big deal to gift us with your discarded jewelry, lipstick and nail polish. But to me, it was a very big deal since we just did not get extras like that. But, the funny thing is that we never realized our family was poor. That speaks volumes for our parents and how they raised us. To this day, I do not place great value on a storehouse of material possessions.
What a Great Cause! I have donated my used mountain bike to a charity organization. When I worked in HR I tried to drum up interest with employees going in together and donating a few bikes for the Holiday charity causes and it worked and had multiple bikes donated. Loving the photo of you on your bike:) I love biking to this day and hope to ride well into my 80’s – ha! Happy Hump Day:)
Oh, Renee, that’s great that you would encourage your coworkers to pool funds to buy bikes for kids. You have such a good heart.
The REWARD is the smile on a kid’s face while riding a bike – such FREEDOM and PURE JOY!!!
Absolutely.
Beautiful story to enhance this program and remind people about their childhood and how they can help their community!
Thank you, Melanie. Are you Addis’ granddaughter? If so, I remember you well. Addis set a great example of caring for others in the way she lived and gave to her church.
I couldn’t agree more with all notions. I have many fond memories with bikes as a child. It is your first real experience with some degree of freedom. Back in my day, though, you didn’t have to be so concerned about the bad elements and risk that are very real today. This is great reason to raise kids in small towns. I road my bike several miles and to different towns as a wee lad; I am not so sure parents would permit that these days; that is pretty sad and unfortunate.
Yes, the world has certainly changed. But not so much in small towns, where kids freely ride their bikes here and there and then just drop them, unlocked, wherever. I still see that often on my stops in small towns. It’s refreshing to see and makes me long for bygone days when life was much simpler and safer.
A bike and roller skates were constantly “in motion” when I was young, too. We all “lived on wheels”! As always, you have a sweet way of stirring the memories! Hugs…..
Ah, yes, rollerskates. I didn’t have any when I was really young. But later on we kids had some, the clamp on kind. Always happy to bring back memories.
Yup…the clamp kind. Always losing the key and they didn’t work on tennis shoes!!!!!! Danger, Danger!!!!!!!!
Oh, the memories…
I was attached to my bike when I was growing up too. I rode my bike to school and was out and about on it every weekend. I understand how you feel about your bike that your grandfather so lovingly put together for you and therefore, understand how important this project is to you – and what a great project it s xx
It’s universal isn’t it, this love for a bike.
My siblings and I rode ours all over the farm–up and down the drive, through the grove, about the yard… When I was older, I hit the county tar road and the township gravel roads.
Great story, Audrey!
Thank you kindly, Lisa.
That’s awesome your grandpa would do that for you all!
Yup. He didn’t have much money either, so we all made do with what was available.
There are times I think that my kids need to learn that.