Who we serve
By providing children with brand new, sparkly bikes TurningWheels For Kids hopes to encourage life long habits of exercise and outdoor activity.
Each year we work diligently to collect funds, purchase and assemble bikes and then distribute them to worthy, established children’s charities for their holiday giving programs. If you are a member of an organization that you think would benefit from the gift of bicycles during the holidays, please visit our Grant Request Form. Each year we look forward to our annual Bike Build in December. In one day, we assemble ALL of the bicycles for our holiday giving program and we also assemble bicycles for separate projects that will require built bicycles in the coming year.
Some of these projects include:
- While a large number of our bikes are distributed during the holiday to children for whom this will be their only gift, we also provide bikes to the Lifestyle Modification Clinic of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center run by Dr. Dan Delgado. Dr. Delgado works with many children who are already suffering significant health issues as a result of being overweight. To learn more about Dr. Delgado’s work and our partnership, please visit Dr. Delgado’s Corner. As far as we know, we are the only organization in existence that enables doctors to facilitate the tools needed to promote healthy lifestyles with the prescription of bicycles!
- We are also involved on a smaller level in providing large three-wheeled tricycles year round to mentally and physically disabled children who come from needy families. The bicycles can be costly, upwards of $300 apiece retail which is financially out of reach for the families we serve.
- In addition to the bicycles that have been distributed throughout our community, this year we are reaching further in our efforts to put kids on bicycles. Right now we are conducting a separate fundraising campaign in order to fund bicycles for children in Bay View, Mississippi affected by Hurricane Katrina. We have learned of a cluster of families, as they work to rebuild their town, that simply do not have the resources to own things so basic to a child’s happiness such as toys and bicycles. We hope to raise funds in order to supply 100 bicycles to every child in this group in order to help them do what is important; go outside and have fun!
We understand that all funds that have been donated thus far have been intended for our community giving campaign. No funds donated to TurningWheels have been used for this project-hence, the separate fundraising campaign.
If you would like for your contributed funds to go specifically to any of these projects, please contact Sue Runsvold and your funds will be allotted to the appropriate project. Remember, 100% of your donation will go directly toward the purchase of bicycles. We hope you see the importance in our work. As Robert Frost once so aptly put it, we have “miles to go before (we) sleep”.
Additional Resources
