By Kristin Kinnamon, Board President
Remember the joy of riding a bicycle as a child? Your whole world expanded because you could coast on two wheels.
2020 has been a year of limitations for all of us – where we go, who we see, how close we can get. Being on a bicycle still feels freeing, though.
Despite major changes to our usual kids bike events this year, Sharing Wheels volunteers refurbished about 150 bikes matched with low income families. While many volunteers stayed home due to COVID, you took bikes home to repair and bring back.
Affordable bikes were sold out at retail bike shops, but we still had – and have – a great variety to choose from. We’ve been able to keep up with record demand thanks to hundreds of bicycle donations (prompted by COVID-inspired cleaning).
I helped many people pick out their first bike in years. Customers bought bikes to use for transportation, to make up for closed gyms, to have a healthy way for families to be together outside. Biking has been an important escape for so many of us, myself included. Riding into the shop across the tidally-influenced Snohomish River reminds me that the world is still out there, ebbing and flowing.
An 80-year-old with a tear in his eye told me: “This is the best bike I’ve ever had in my life.” Gary got his refurbished Univega Range Rover from Sharing Wheels as part of a grant program funded by the City of Everett. The bike had fenders, a rack, and a bag full of tools to fix a flat tire – a skill participants learned as part of the program. Gary and I were at Everett Station, practicing how to put his new, lightweight bike on the bus.
Gary described his son as his caretaker, but the bike means Gary can get around on his own. Next year, riding 200 miles from Seattle to Portland is on Gary’s bucket list.
Bikes mean freedom, no matter your age.