We are no longer asking for donations of bicycles for this year’s Giveaways–We need to turn our attention to giving them all away. If you have a bike that you can’t keep until next October, contact us and we’ll figure something out–but it will go into our 2021 Campaign.
Starting tomorrow, in fact, Free Bikes 4 Kidz starts to, well, give away free bikes to kids. We have five events scheduled this week, including our largest Giveaway Day at Howard Community College on December 12, when we’ll give about 400 bicycles to children referred to us by Howard County Schools. Next week we’ll have at least six more events, and by December 20 we expect to have given away every bicycle we were able to refurbish–over 850 of them. That sounds terrific, and it’s about twice as good as last year, but the fact that we have a waiting list of 300 children reminds us of the size of the need, and how far we have yet to go.
All of these events will be outside, with masks and social distancing required. Recipients are being scheduled over intervals to reduce crowding, and there will be lots of hand sanitizer available. Volunteers are still being scheduled for our Howard Community College Giveaway Day on December 12 as well as smaller Giveaway Days on December 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19. You can use our volunteer page, and just answer “no” to the first question about changing a bike tire, to sign up for those opportunities. We’re in need of bike wranglers to load and unload trucks, bike helmet distributors, bike selection assistants, check-in staff, and a variety of other roles. We’ll be outside but under cover, sprawled across an entire deck of the East Parking Garage to ensure appropriate distancing.
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