A number of Bishop’s School students recently put the pedal to the metal in helping bring bikes to youngsters at La Jolla Elementary School.
Bishop’s, which has a Teen Korps chapter on campus, was part of Build-A-Bike, a project run through Kids Korps, a national community service organization. Kids Korps partnered with Starbucks for this project, and Starbucks provided the funding for the bikes, helmets and bike locks.
“This is the first year that we have done this project on our campus,” said Joan Heylman, Bishop’s School director of community service. “Our participants included Teen Korps chapter members, the boys lacrosse team and any student wishing to participate.”
Members of the Bishop’s chapter of Teen Korps include co-presidents Joe Ferran (’07), Patrick Wafer (’07), vice-president Will Geier (’07), and parent leader Joani Wafer.
Late last month, 65 students gathered on Bishop’s campus to assemble the bikes. Twenty-two students from the boys lacrosse team then delivered the bikes to La Jolla Elementary School. The school had predetermined the recipients of the bikes.
Each bike was delivered with a child’s name attached to the handlebars, and members of the lacrosse team helped adjust the seats for each child, fitted their helmet and assisted them on their first trial ride.
“There were lots of smiles and an abundance of thank-yous,” Heylman noted.
In all, 30 bikes were assembled and delivered.
“La Jolla Elementary was extremely cooperative, and we hope to make this an annual project,” Heylman continued. “I think that it worked very well to partner with La Jolla Elementary School due to the close proximity and the socioeconomic level of many of the bused students at the school. It is my hope that we will continue the project, at least next year, with the school.”
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