Building bicycles
Volunteers help assemble bikes each year for children from families in need.
With their tool bags in hand, 150 volunteers descended upon a metro-area warehouse for a morning of building bicycles. The 12th annual “Buck$ 4 Bikes” assembly event was hosted by the faith-based Salvation Army Central Oklahoma Area Command Women’s Auxiliary on Nov. 25 in Oklahoma City.
Volunteers ranging from individual cyclists, to families and civic clubs, assembled 1,350 bicycles and tricycles destined for children from needy families in The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program.
“Please do this with joy in your heart and know that it is very important what you do,”
D’Anna Pulliam, an auxiliary member who is Buck$ 4 Bikes volunteer chairman, told those gathered.
Pulliam said the women’s auxiliary started the Buck$ 4 Bikes program in 2006 because the No. 1 requested item on Angel Tree children’s wish lists was a bicycle.
She said the auxiliary raises funds all year long to purchase the bicycles.
More than $49,000 was raised through generous donors, and Pulliam said so much of Buck$ 4 Bikes depends on the community.
In addition to the donations to buy the bicycles, FedEx transports the bicycles for free from Huffy, which sells the cycles at a discounted cost. Pulliam said the Oklahoma Bicycle Society, through its Oklahoma City Streak bicycle ride, purchased 1,350 helmets to be presented with the new bicycles.
She said individuals from the bicycle society, along with groups like Rotary Clubs, Kiwanis, Oklahoma Earthbike Fellowship and professional bicycle mechanics from area bicycle shops gave their Saturday free time to assemble the bicycles.
“This is a lot of people who could be doing other stuff,” said Maj. Stacie McWilliams, who is associate area commander of The Salvation Army Central Oklahoma Command with her husband Thomas.
Jeff Gabelsberg and several of his fellow members of the OKC Sunrise Rotary Club helped assemble bicycles as part of the organization’s mission of service. He worked to assemble bicycles with his wife, Heather, and niece, Ariana Moore.
“Our motto is ‘Service Above Self,’ and our focus is children and education,” Jeff Gabelsberg said. “Bike$ 4 Bucks came across our paths a few years ago, and we decided to come help out.”
Steve Smith, of Oklahoma City, said he is an avid bicyclist who found out about the bicycle assembly event through his membership with the Oklahoma Bicycle Society.
“This is one of the days that I absolutely enjoy because I can give back to the community,” he said.
Steve Brooks, who assembled bicycles with his wife, Mary, said he had participated in the assembly day for the past four years.
He said assembling the bicycles was fairly simple since they came partially built and also had some written instructions. He said individuals from local bicycle stores would do a final check on the volunteers’ work to make sure the youths who receive the bicycles will be able to ride safely this Christmas.