Bike Lady Update December 2


Dear Friends of the Bike Lady:

Year 2012 is rolling along amazingly well. Thank you for your continued support and generosity. Here’s a quick status update:

We just surpassed $40,000 in funds raised to date and have 750 locks purchased, 750 sets of safety information photocopied and 750 tote bags donated by Meijer all on hand. We also have 772 helmets donated by Nationwide Children’s Hospital in conjunction with the Columbus Blue Jackets Foundation. We have slightly over 700 bicycles currently being assembled at Pickaway Correctional Institution (PCI) and tomorrow, we begin rolling them out!

Tomorrow, Licking County will take 23, Union County 37, Madison County 50 and Franklin County will receive the first 100 of 500 total. As in years past, Abbruzzese Brothers will donate time, fuel, labor and vehicles to move the bikes. We’ll continue purchasing bikes as long as there is funding and we’ll deliver them through December 22nd until the last one is out the door and last nickel spent.

I wish you could be there as we transfer the bikes over to social services. Workers stream out of the building to help unload. People smile, laugh and hug. There’s an extra spring in everyone’s step and, without fail, a few bikes will get a test drive around the parking lot. It seems there’s still a kid in many of us. Once the bikes are in the building, other workers start claiming wheels for “their kids” as they place sticky notes with case file numbers on bicycle seats or roll them to cubicles for safe keeping. The experience feels like Christmas. It is truly joyful.

Yet, the greatest joy will occur in about three weeks as foster children all over central Ohio wake up to find a gift they never expected, wouldn’t dream of requesting and will likely treasure as their greatest possession. While you won’t see their expressions, surely you can imagine their amazement. And maybe one of them will be like the young man we recently learned about. He received a bike a couple years ago. He made the football team and got a part time job because he finally had transportation. He then graduated high school – first person ever in his family – and is now in college. That is the power of one simple bike.

We’re short about 45 bikes to serve 750 kids. If you haven’t already, please consider putting a kid on bike this holiday season.

An updated donor list can be found at http://www.bikelady.org/Year_2012_Friends.html. Please let me know any errors or omissions. Media coverage links can be found at http://www.bikelady.org/News__Links___FAQ_s.html.

As always, thank you for rolling with the Bike Lady.

To forego receiving Bike Lady updates, reply with REMOVE in the subject line.

Sincerely,

Kate Koch Gatch | Executive Director | Bike Lady, Inc.
PO Box 311 Blacklick | OH 43004 |T: 614.946.6463
Email: staff@bikelady.org | Web: www.bikelady.org | Facebook: Bike Lady Inc.

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