Usually, the Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange (SVBE) donates quantities of bikes to our partner agencies, not knowing the stories of the people who actually get them. Most of our volunteers don't get to see their hard work in action. 

On rare occasions, an agency will refer a specific individual or family for bikes. In this instance, a family of six needed transportation – bicycles for all. Due to prior commitments, SVBE didn’t  have extra bikes for them. 

Mark A., a hands-on volunteer mechanic for SVBE, who usually takes home a steady stream of bikes to work on for SVBE, had a good idea of what they needed and asked them to come back in two weeks. Mark then took a few bikes home with him and fixed them up before the next workday.

When the family returned, the 6 and 8 year olds were extremely excited to see their new bikes. The father said his younger kids could hardly sleep the night before because they wanted to see and ride their new bikes. Unknown to the father, Mark had also fixed up a cruiser bike for the dad, similar to the one the mother already had.  Mark said, “You should have seen the totally surprised look on the father’s face when I gave him his bike!"  That big smile on his face said it all!  He was just as excited as his kids!” Getting a bicycle to ride at any age is truly a wonderful experience!

The bikes Mark was working on for the 12 and 14 year-olds weren’t quite done yet, so Mark once again asked them to come back in another two weeks. Two weeks later, the teens were as thrilled as the younger ones when they saw their bikes!

Mark said, "You would have thought it was Christmas morning when the kids came back each time to see what I had for them!   The father said we were all a blessing here at SVBE, and gave me a big bear hug!"

 

Learn more about the superstars who keep SVBE rolling through our previous featured volunteer spotlights!