Life lessons on two wheels

Local kids receive bikes after helping assemble them

By Heather Ruenz

Editor

Numerous Whitewater kids are zooming around the city on shiny, new bikes this summer thanks to a collaborative effort between a local foundation, the middle school and the police department.

Golden State Foods Foundation will participate in 16 Build-A-Bike events nationwide, giving away nearly 1,000 bikes to kids in the process. But that’s only part of the story because the bikes arrive in boxes, allowing foundation volunteers to spend time in their local communities assembling the bikes with help from the kids who will ride them.

   “It really helps teach them about responsibility,” foundation volunteer Jessica Uhe said at the Whitewater Build-A-Bike event last month. “And it’s important for us to give back to our communities.”

GSF Foundation teams up with local schools to help determine what kids are deserving of a bike, based on a number of factors though kids who may not have ever owned a new bike, or a bike at all, often top the list for local schools.

Whitewater Middle School principal Tanya Wojciechowicz said the program is great all-around.

“It’s so awesome that Golden State Foods Foundation does this,” Wojciechowicz said. “And to see the kids working alongside volunteers to assemble the bikes is heart-warming, not to mention how great it is once the kids take them for a ride.”

Alyn Jones, a GSF Foundation volunteer who has been participating in the program, worked with Martin Rodriguez, who is 12, at the event.

“He’s done a great job helping put his bike together and we let him do as much as we could,” Jones said. “The only part we’re kind of taking over is the brakes assembly because we want him to be safe.”

Jones said the foundation is employee-sponsored and something he is “proud to be part of.”

For Rodriquez, being chosen as a recipient meant a great deal to him.

“I’m pretty excited because this is my first new bike,” Rodriguez said with a smile while Jones finished adjusting the brake cables.

The Whitewater Police Department also partnered with the GSF Foundation and the middle school for the Whitewater Build-A-Bike event by donating licenses for all of the bikes built that day, approximately 20, and offering the kids an important lesson about bike safety.

Once all of the bikes were assembled, officer Jen Ludlum of the Whitewater PD spoke to the kids about the rules of the road.

“The biggest rule is putting on helmets before you ride, even if you’re only riding to your friend’s house down the block,” Ludlum said.

Ludlum told the kids they should ride on sidewalks in Whitewater whenever possible “with the exception of the downtown where there are restaurants and other businesses. The sidewalk is the safest place for you to be.”

At crosswalks, Ludlum said, “you need to wait for the signal to cross and don’t ever take for granted that cars are going to stop for you, even when you are in a crosswalk.”

She then told the kids that if there’s only one seat on a bike that means only one person can be on it, and if they’re going to be riding at night, they need a red light on the back of their bikes.

“The GSF Foundation is proud to serve our communities,” Mark Wetterau, chairman and chief executive officer of Golden State Foods and chairman of the foundation said. “Seeing our associates come together with our business partners and customers to give back to the children in our neighborhoods through the annual Build-A-Bike program is one of the most rewarding aspects of my role as chairman.”

For more information about Build-A-Bike or the GSF Foundation visit www.gsffoundation.org.