Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Giving bikes to kids November 13, 2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 6:00 AM
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Me, riding Sky Blue at age 10 on the farm where I grew up in southwestern Minnesota.

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.

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

 

The patriotic pride of Harley riders August 16, 2012

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 7:06 AM
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Bikers and others gather for a post hospice ride party at Faribault Harley-Davidson.

LONG GONE, at least in my mind, is the image of Harley riders as rough outlaw types roaring along our roadways, storming into towns, raising hell.

When they travel in a pack now, it’s usually for a purpose, like last Saturday’s fifth annual ride to benefit the Faribault Area Hospice.

While my husband and I missed the ride (he doesn’t have a Harley anymore, his 1977 Sportster being totaled more than a decade ago by a teen who ran a stop sign, plowed into the bike and sent Randy to the hospital), that didn’t keep us from checking out the post ride activities and bikes at Faribault Harley-Davidson.

I’ll be the first to admit that attending a biking event isn’t exactly on the top of my to-do list. But sometimes wives go along for the ride, just like husbands accompany their wives to artsy happenings that they’d probably rather skip.

As always, I carried my camera with hopes that maybe, just maybe, I’d find something worth photographing beyond the rows of bikes I knew Randy would be eying.

The Harley dress code: black leather.

Well, it wasn’t the masses of Harleys which caught my attention, but the details on individual bikes. I hope I didn’t make any of the Harley riders, who can appear intimidating in their black leather, nervous. I threaded my way among the parked bikes, bending, crouching, occasionally setting my camera onto the freshly seal-coated asphalt as I snapped photos.

The unique skull kickstand. Any significance to this skull, readers?

And as I wandered, a picture began to develop of the men and women who ride Harleys, or at least those in attendance at The Ride for Hospice party in Faribault. Except for the skulls on one bike and the boney foot kickstand on another, I found nothing particularly unusual.

The flag on the left honors SPC Mathew Kahler, killed in Afghanistan in 2008.

Rather, I discovered a common theme of patriotism among bikers who have served their country and/or want to honor those serving. It was heart-warming and uplifting to see such support.

One of two blessing stickers I noticed on bikes.

Equally pleasing were stickers I spotted on two bikes indicating they had been blessed. I expect blessings were flowing all around on Saturday as these bikers opened their wallets and their hearts to help hospice, an organization which, at some point, touches nearly all of our lives.

Another patriotically adorned bike and a Vietnam veteran’s jacket along with Ernie from Sesame Street.

Proud to be an American and driving an American made Harley-Davidson.

Patriotic patches seem a popular adornment on Harley attire.

These boots, sitting next to a bike, reminded me of the phrase “boots on the ground” when soldiers hit the ground running.

The yellow flag represents the Minnesota Patriot Guard.

Patriotism displayed, right down to the license plate on this bike.

© Copyright 2012 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Why we attended Bike Night in Moorhead instead of an art walk in Fargo June 22, 2012

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 7:09 AM
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Randy with his 1977 Harley Davidson Sportster in the summer on 1981.

I’M NO BIKER CHICK or Motorcycle Mama.

But my husband, well, once a Harley guy, always a Harley guy. Randy hasn’t owned a bike, though, for 15 years. On a mid-June morning in 1997, a teen driver plowed his car into my spouse’s 1977 Sportster on a Northfield city street. Randy landed on his tailbone in the roadway and was transported by ambulance to the hospital. He experienced severe bruising, soreness and back pain for quite awhile, but suffered no other apparent injuries.

The insurance company totaled the Sportster.

Ever since then, Randy has longed for a replacement Harley. But finances and my worries have kept him bike-less. The 1997 accident marked his second bike incident. Previously Randy laid his Harley down on a Faribault highway to avoid a collision.

The June 14 Bike Night in the east parking lot of the Moorhead Center Mall.

Occasionally he’ll say, “I should get a bike.” Randy expressed that wish again recently when we attended Bike Night at the Moorhead Center Mall.

Bike Night wasn’t my choice of events to attend when we were in the Fargo-Moorhead area last week. I would have much rather strolled through downtown Fargo shops sipping wine and watching artists during the Corks & Canvas Art and Wine Walk than meander between motorcycles in a mall parking lot.

But, because marriage is about compromise and sometimes doing what the spouse wants, there we were, looking at bikes. I’ll admit to not being in the best of moods. I was hot, thirsty, tired, hungry and crabby upon our arrival.

Eventually, though, I figured out that I may as well make the best of it.

One of my favorite bikes at Bike Night because of the license plate, flags and message, “Riding for the son.”

One of the oldest of the estimated 350 bikes at Bike Night.

Biking through the Moorhead Center Mall east parking lot during the June 14 Bike Night.

So…if motorcycles are your thing and you’re in the Moorhead area, you have two more opportunities to attend Bike Night from 5:30 p.m. – 9 p.m. on July 12 and August 9. Non-bikers are supposed to park near Herberger’s, which we did not because we had a tough time even finding the Bike Night location. It’s in the east parking lot.

You’ll see plenty of bikes—an estimated 350 on the June evening we were there—and plenty of interesting characters. There’s food and beer, too, although we did not sample either.

If you’d rather sample wine and experience the art scene, do the Corks & Canvas Art and Wine Walk across the river in Fargo from 5 p.m. – 9 p.m. on July 12, August 9 and/or September 13.

Perhaps if I’d mentioned that Turtle Shell Stained Glass Gallery was on the art walk, my husband may have opted for the arts event. He’s taken a class in stained glass and created several pieces. But, naw, I don’t think it would have mattered. Bikes trump art anytime for him.

© Copyright 2012 Audrey Kletscher Helbling