Volunteers Work To Prepare Bikes For Popular TPS Program

Volunteers are hard at work getting hundreds of bicycles ready for a popular after school program.

The Bike Club program is now in its third year, and 240 bicycles are getting ready for the upcoming school year.

The assembly line of volunteers is where cyclists start giving back to their community.

Soon elementary school students will ride the bicycles.

“It means we've got roughly 200 kids in these schools moving and connecting with wonderful role models and mentors," said Bike Club member Mike Wozniak.

The after school program pairs cycling clubs with students. Three years in and the after school program is now in nine Tulsa schools.

Mike Wozniak and his team helped the program launch at Emerson Elementary.

“We're teaching kids bike safety and rules of the road, some simple repairs,” Wozniak explained. “It gets them set up to use this stuff in the future."

Clair Powers' cycling team is volunteering with kids at Eugene Field this year.

“One of the purposes of our group is to give back to the community, and that was one of the things that we wanted to do when we formed our group,” said Powers. “So, this was a great opportunity for all of us to be able to participate.”

The growth wouldn't be possible without the partnership with Tulsa Public Schools.

“We are definitely about Bike Club,” stated TPS Physical Education Coordinator Jen Sanders. “We love it. We think it's a great opportunity for our kids. And it's a way for our community to build relationships with our kids, and that's what we're about."

Once the bikes get to the schools, the students will learn how to maintain them and they'll ride them throughout the year.