She started Trips for Kids bicycling group
Marilyn Price was riding her mountain bicycle through redwood forests north San Francisco one day when she wondered how she could share the experience with disadvantaged kids from the city.
Scoring 10 donated bikes, she started Trips for Kids. Nineteen years later, that dream has turned into an organization with 57 chapters across the US that seek to steer kids away from trouble by getting them outside and away from bad influences.
Price is one of 40 persons in the America's Greatest Hometown Hero contest presented by the Volvo for life Awards. Three top vote-getters will receive $100,000 for their charities and one winner will receive a free Volvo every year for life.
Where to vote
I'm sure Price could put both to use. If you'd like to support her cause, you can vote at the Volvo for life Awards online ballot. She's competing in the Quality category.
The Volvo site tells some of the program's successes:
“The program has ensured that more than thirteen thousand disadvantaged children from the San Francisco Bay Area have experienced the natural world from the seat of a mountain bike. The program also teaches bicycle and computer repair work at the TFK warehouse. Through their apprenticeships, participants earn credits toward purchasing their own mountain bikes and computers.
“The original program still brings inner city youth from San Francisco to bucolic Marin County to mountain bike the county's expansive countryside. … The typical outing begins at TFK's San Raphael warehouse, where the staff outfits the young riders for the trip. Next, the staff teams each youngster with a mentor – an experienced mountain biker who will accompany them for the duration of the trek. Together, the group sets out for Marin's lush terrain. Here, inner city kids ride from hidden ocean beaches up through steep coastal slopes forested in towering redwoods. …
“Marilyn's inspiration has, in turn, inspired hundreds of volunteers to join her cause – fifty-seven TFK chapters have since formed across the United States. Through her program, over thirty-eight thousand inner city children nationwide have explored a world once closed off to them: a place in nature far away from the confines of the street.”
There are chapters in 25 states, DC and Canada. The YouTube video shows an outing by the TFK-CAT chapter in Eugene, Oregon.
Some of those chapters have been started by individuals, like mountain biker Kat Sweet of Seattle, while others are run by the Boys and Girls Club, YMCA or Boy Scouts. The Trips for Kids website tells how to start a chapter, but before you do, cast a vote for Price.
Also, you can see lots of pictures at the Trips for Kids Seattle blog.
Recent Comments