Marine Gunnery Sergeant on Personal Mission to Raise 10,000 Bikes as Holiday Gifts for Deserving Children with the BikesForGood Holiday Bike Drive
Richmond, VA (PRWEB) November 13, 2013 -- 12-year-old Steve Gardner was overjoyed when he received his first ten speed bicycle in 1981 as a prize for winning the local read-a-thon competition. It was a Schwinn 10 speed bike that was way too big so when he had to stand on his toes to keep his balance. 30 years later, he wants to spread that same joy of owning his own two wheels by raising enough money to buy 10,000 bikes as holiday gifts for children in 100 cities around the United States.
Steve Gardner is no stranger to the cause of getting kids on bicycles. In 1997-1999, he was part of the team that ran Virginia’s Toys-for-Tots program where they raised over 5,000 new bikes for the children of Roanoke, Virginia. His efforts won him the community service award from the State of Virginia and motivated him to bring the campaign nationwide.
“Owning a bicycle is one of the best ways to aid the physical and social development of a child. Some of my best memories as a child were built on my bicycle while exploring the neighborhood with my friends,” said Steve.
But it is not just monetary donation that Steve hopes to solicit, of equal emphasis is the awareness factor and that the message gets passed on and to encourage this, BikesForGood will be managing a social media effort to inspire the public to share their stories about owning and riding their bicycles as a kid. Whether a photo of your first bike, or a video reminiscing about your first biking experience, visitors are encouraged to share their biking memories on Bike for Good’s Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest pages.
“Stories have the power to inspire, and what better way to spread the message than to have people talking about their childhood memories on the bike,” added Steve. “The aim is to get the entire community involved to contribute, either by a monetary donation or simply by liking, following or sharing our cause.”
The Bikes for Good campaign will run from 22 November to 15 December 2013, and all funds targeted for bikes will be channeled solely to the purchase of bicycles.
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About Bikes for Good
Bikes for Good is part of Steve Gardner’s vision to inspire the world to donate 1 Billion community service hours as part of his Challenge2Society campaign. Our 2013 goal is to inspire 100 cities to each donate 100 bikes to deserving children, so that 10,000 bikes are donated in the 2013 holiday season. For more information, visit: http://www.bikesforgood.org.
Bikes for Good and Challenge2Society are members of onepercentfortheplanet.org.
http://www.pinterest.com/BikesForGood
http://www.Facebook.com/BikesForGood
http://www.Twitter.com/BikesForGood
http://www.YouTube.com/BikesForGood
Steve Gardner, Bikes for Good, http://www.BikesForGood.org, +1 (804) 300-6736, [email protected]
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