Left to right: GLAR Committee members Kim Whitcomb, Pete Holoway, Wendy Mackey and Beth Graham with Denny Shell (second on left)
By Amanda Oboza
and TNCP Staff
LANSING, MI — On Saturday April 30, children mostly from Lansing’s Walnut Neighborhood located on the Northside, starting gearing up for summer in a big way: they received a bike and helmet.
The Greater Lansing Association of REALTORS® (GLAR) teamed up with the Walnut Neighborhood Organization to collect gently-used bikes and safety gear to donate at Bike Blitz 2011. Seventy bikes and brand new helmets were raffled to people on a first come- first serve basis inside Mid Michigan Academy’s gym located at 730 W. Maple Street.
Brand new helmets were donated by Capital Area Safe Kids and they assisted in fitting the helmets on the children while also teaching them about safe riding.
“GLAR was honored to organize such a great community building event,” said GLAR CEO Meghan Webber.
Families gathered at the Mid-Michigan Leadership Academy for the Bike Blitz and enjoyed food, fun and the bike raffle. Little Caesars pizza donated 10 pizzas and GLAR members donated hot dogs and snacks.
Steven Keyton, Community Outreach Director at Mid-Michigan Leadership Academy said, “This was a great opportunity for the school to work together with organizations to help children who live in the area exercise as well. We are pleased to have been a part of this event.”
With the prevalence of obesity in children, living healthy is important as the problem has reached epidemic proportions and is largely due to an inactive lifestyle.
“Every child was very grateful and appreciative to have a bike and be able to use it this summer for exercise,” Wendy Mackey, GLAR member and volunteer said.
The children weren’t the only ones walking away with smiles on their faces. Lucky parents in the audience also had the chance to win a prize in the raffle. Donated items raffled to parents included Avon products, gift certificates, dictionaries and thesauruses. The Capital Area District Library’s geekthelibrary.com program was also promoted, which included literacy information and the importance of obtaining and using a library card.
Since August 2010, GLAR has been collecting bikes and planned to donate them to local children. Any needed repairs to the bikes were made and tires were inflated.
“The kids were so excited and well behaved. My favorite part was seeing the smiles on their faces.” Courtney Clark, GLAR staff administrative assistant said.
May 8, 2011 – May 21, 2011 Edition
