Buck for a Bike Campaign: Bikes and Kids

At the end of last school year I wrote about how wonderful it has been for my daughter to bike to school ("Bike to School: The Road to Independence"). I also wrote about a technique to teach your child how to bike in under an hour. As you can imagine, my family is passionate about biking, all due to my husband's love for the sport. As a matter of fact my husband biked across the country, starting in Seattle and ending up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And my blogging partner just participated in the Ragbrai trek across Iowa. We are huge biking enthusiasts.

So we are extremely pleased to introduce you to a wonderful campaign called "Buck for a Bike." “We are known for our holiday Big Bike Build and for the Turning Wheels for Kids (TWFK) cycling team that participates in the Death Ride,” said TWFK founder and chairman Sue Runsvold. “We are now growing into an organization that needs to be sustained all year, and to do that we created the ‘Buck for a Bike’ campaign.” TWFK and its Buck for a Bike campaign were featured in a July 7th, 2011 Mercury News column: "Bicycle charity joins fight against childhood obesity".

Buck for a Bike Campaign
The Buck for a Bike Campaign will include opportunities for people in the San Jose-South Bay to get involved by putting their dollar to work for TWFK:

Donations can be made online at www.BuckForABike.org and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TurningWheelsForKids
Volunteers, kids, and members of TWFK's Board of Directors will be taking to the streets, personally collecting bucks for bikes. The public is invited to become a Captain of a fundraising team or join one today by emailing: Contact@TurningWheelsForKids.org.
Retail tie-in: local retail bicycling stores are being approached to take a leadership role in collecting donations at their cash registers throughout the county. Participating bike retail stores include:

Bicycle Express: 131 E. William Street (San Jose, 95112)
Trail Head Cyclery: 14390 Union Ave. (San Jose, 95124)
Willow Glen Bicycles: 1016 Lincoln Avenue San Jose, CA 95125
Tread Bikes: 501 E. Campbell Avenue, Campbell, CA 95008
Performance Bicycle:

Campbell 1646 S Bascom Ave.Hamilton Plaza Campbell, CA 95008
Dublin 7000 Amador Plaza Road Dublin Place Shopping Center Dublin, CA 94568
Mountain View 2124 West El Camino Real One block west of S. Rengstorff Ave. Mountain View, CA 94040
San Francisco 635 Brannan Street Between 5th and 6th Street San Francisco, CA 94107
San Mateo 2727 South El Camino Real With Mattress Discounters & Fitness 19 San Mateo, CA 94403
Walnut Creek 1401 N Broadway N. Broadway at Cypress Street Walnut Creek, CA 94596

Visitors can see videos of local community leaders sharing their“My First Bike” stories at www.buckforabike.org or on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/turningwheelsforkids.
Residents of Santa Clara County are also encouraged to contribute their “My First Bike” stories that may be posted on the website as well.
Tie-ins with bicycle associations and enthusiast groups.
Major events - three events this year provide focus and impetus to all the other activities:

TurningWheels for Kids Death Ride Cycling Team - July 9th, 2011. The TWFK Team raises funds by riding in one of the most demanding cycling events in California, covering 129 miles and 15,000 feet of climbing spread over five mountain passes in a single day. Last year’s Death Ride Cycling Team led by Leah Toeniskoetter raised more than $80,000 for TWFK.
Oakland Athletics Buck for a Bike Day - August 20th, 2011. For the first time, TWFK will be at a major sports stadium through a joint community engagement effort with the Oakland Athletics. A custom TWFK bicycle designed by Raleigh Bicycles and signed by Oakland Athletics players will be auctioned and the game will include fireworks presented by Chevron Corporation.
TurningWheels for Kids Big Bike Build featuring The Great Tricycle Race – December, 10th 2011. TWFK’s annual holiday drive, the Big Bike Build, brings hundreds of volunteers to San Jose Convention Center’s South Hall to build more than 2,000 bikes for distribution to local children’s charities. In 2011, the second annual Great Tricycle Race will feature local VIPs, business executives, and news media compete, mounted on adult-sized, but still comically small, tricycles. Last year’s Great Tricycle Race included: Ryan Nyquist, professional BMX Athlete and X Games Gold medalist; Joey Garcia, Professional BMX Athlete; Gene Banman, CEO of Zero Motorcycles; Dan Fenton, then CEO of Team San Jose; Rich Gamboa, Vice President of UBS; Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group; Joe Parisi, CEO and Founder of Therma Corp.; Joe Rodriguez, Columnist for the San Jose Mercury News; Josh Thompson, former Strikeforce Mixed Martial Arts champ; Wes Wasson, Chief Marketing Officer and Sr. Vice President of Citrix Systems; Tom Werner, CEO of SunPower Corporation; Chris Wilder, Executive Director of the Valley Medical Center Foundation; Barry Arata; Leah Toeniskoetter, Development Manager at Toeniskoetter Development, Inc. and Director at the Valley Medical Center Foundation; and “Sharkie”, the San Jose Sharks mascot.