Tinkering with wheels, pedals and handlebars, members of Together We Rise, a national non-profit that helps improve the experience of children in the U.S. foster care system, hosted a bike build during the weekend in Case Hall to support Lansing area children in foster care.
Several volunteers turned out to help and divided up into two groups, one in North Case Hall and the other in South Case Hall, to construct the bikes.
The volunteer event built bikes to donate to foster kids in Lansing. Through working with Wellspring Lutheran Services’ foster care agency, they were able to find children for each bike.
Twenty-seven bikes were donated and built for the children. Each bike was brand new and special for each child.
“I think these bikes really represent the joy of being a kid, and bringing back that normalcy to the life of a child in foster care. For older children, they really represent a sense of independence and control,” environmental economics and policy senior and organizer of this event Elizabeth Brajevich said.
The bicycles were purchased through donations and fundraising done by residence hall governments, including Wonders Hall, Holden Hall, Wilson Hall and Case Hall.
The bikes’ designs included Buzz Lightyear-themed, pink handlebar streamers and a range of sizes.
The event ran like a well-oiled machine and finished in record time Saturday morning thanks to focused volunteer effort.
The bikes were all built within an hour and a half, three and a half hours ahead of schedule.
“It was just something for them to have fun and bond with other kids around them,” James Madison freshman Amber DeJohn said.
The dedicated team is excited for the kids to receive their bikes Monday.
The event also helped raise awareness in the community for the more than 13,000 children in foster care across the state of Michigan.
“One of the biggest problems is that we don’t have people stepping forward to become foster parents and to adopt children in the foster care system who are ready to be adopted,” Brajevich said. “It’s important to make these children something that we talk about and welcome into our homes and society.”
