Texas Non-Profit Brings Bikes to Less Fortunate Children
I never learned to ride it though.
Two years later I got a yellow one and this one I raced around the yard, up and down the street, with my sister giving me my first push in the backyard. I rode the wear out of that bike for three years and I loved every minute of it.
In between that time my sister was in a foster home and when I would visit her we would ride bikes in the country where the house was located, flying down hills, around curves, and returning home reluctantly.
A not-for-profit group helps less fortunate children realize the gift of bike ownership.
Bikes For Tykes of Fort Worth and Benbrook, TX recycles and reconditions discarded and donated bicycles and parts into safe ones for the kids.
The group needs help in reconditioning bikes and bikes and parts. Lots of help is needed and no experience is necessary, they say. To donate bikes or parts you can drop them off at your local Bicycle’s Inc.” store according to the group’s website, fwbaclub.org/bikes-for-tykes.cfm.
The organization is ran by Pete Cox and Andrew Sadowski of Benbrook and the group meets monthly on the first Monday of the month at 7:30 p.m. at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Boulevard, Building 2, Room 2-100 in Fort Worth. Meetings are described as a “light-hearted, social affair.”
Board meetings are held at 6:30 p.m. and members may attend them, too.
Bikes for Tykes is part of the Fort Worth Bicycling Association.
On Dec. 10th the Association’s Kickstand team will go for some easy peddling in Johnson County at 9 a.m. and on New Year’s Day at the same time Rickey Wray Wilson will begin his “Century of the Month” series at Joe Pool Lake in Grand Prairie – a special club event. Also on Jan. 1st Mike Reade will have his traditional New Year’s Day ride at 9 a.m. in Palo Pinto.
The Association also has weekly rides at various locations like Joe Pool Lake with the route going through gorgeous Lake Ridge housing, through Britton, and the edge of Mansfield. There is also a Ladies Night on the Trinity Trail held weekly which meets at Bryant Irvin Road and River Park in Fort Worth, riding 15-24 miles.
The Rusty Chain Gang Ramble rides weekly, meeting at the City of Fort Worth parking lot at 4100 Columbus Trail and every week there’s a Trinity Trail Night Ride, meeting at the Trinity Commons Shopping Center at the corner of Hulen and Bellaire in the open parking lot in front of the Izumi store. The Rusty Chain Gang Romp also rides weekly and all skill levels are welcome.
There are also annual special events peppered throughout the state such as the Super Bowl Sunday Ride, a club tradition in the Metroplex, the Easter Hill Country Tour, called “the gem of cycling” in Texas by the group. Next year’s 33rd Easter tour will be April 14th-16th in Kerrville hosted by The Lubbock Bicycle Club.
There is also an annual ride from Austin to Fort Worth and next year’s will be April 8-10. You can get a better rate by booking online at Travelodge in Austin. The ride is meant for riders of all levels, meaning you choose your own distances daily.
Celebrating their 35th birthday this year, the club had a picnic in Grandview.
The Enchanted Circle Trip, called “the most beautiful and challenging bicycle event n the southwest” is a scenic, high altitude, alpine ride through the lovely Rockies of New Mexico and the 2nd week in September. The Alpine Lodge will be the Association’s headquarters.
On Dec. 8th this year the Association will have their holiday party at the Carter Burger Building in the Fort Worth Club at 777 Main Street in Fort Worth at 7 p.m. You can park in the Carter Burgess Building parking garage (entrance Commerce Street).
