Kennebec Couple Donates Bikes to Excited Kindergarten Class
Wed, 08/31/2022 - 12:46pm
admin
By:
Krisanna Thoma
Jones County kindergartners received a big surprise on Tuesday, August 23. A generous donation of Strider bicycles from Rod and Nancy Bowar of Kennebec, S.D.! Each child will have the use of a Strider bike this year during P.E. class with Mrs. Ann Geisler.
Strider was established in 2007 in Rapid City, S.D. The company features bicycles that are lightweight and allow the rider to learn to balance by using their feet, then when they are ready, the pedals.
The bike reveal took place in the mini gym where kindergartners met Rod and Nancy, received their bike for the year, and were assisted in fitting their helmets and adjusting their bikes to fit just right. Then they jumped on and had a blast tearing around the mini gym on their new rides.
From Nancy Bowar:
“This past May, Rod and I were viewing items on a silent auction for the South Dakota Hall of Fame. Ryan McFarland, founder of Strider bikes and the “All Kids Bike” program, was being inducted and he donated a couple of the programs to the auction. Being somewhat familiar with Strider bikes, we just felt our school could benefit from this and proceeded to win the bid on one.
To our surprise, Lyman Elementary school already had the program. Rod and I were happy to hear that, but now were a little stumped as to who could utilize this. We were able to obtain a list of schools that were not currently using the “All Kids Bike” program. Jones County was on the list and it jumped right out at us! They were the closest school and we immediately made contact with staff to see if they would be interested. The rest of the story is in the pictures.
It was such a joy to see the kids’ faces when the bikes were revealed. There were plenty of thank yous, but their excitement and squeals overloaded our hearts with their appreciation for the donation. It made our day!