This year TurningWheels for Kids was able to provide 450 bikes and helmets to underprivileged children in Santa Clara County. Several charities, including the San Jose Family Shelter and the San Jose Fire Department received over 100 bikes each for their giving campaigns. The smiles on the faces of these children were invaluable. In addition, several other charities and also a local high school whose classrooms were sponsoring needy families received between 30 and 40 bikes each.
With significant media attention, as Christmas drew near, we found ourselves scrambling to provide bikes to private families who contacted us directly requesting bikes. Thanks to the tireless efforts of our friends at Toys "R" Us, namely Manager Anaeit Zagararian and her staff, we were able to procure these bikes despite the chaotic demand that is characteristic of the days before Christmas.
Regarding the private families, we learned of them mostly from kindhearted individuals who called on behalf of people that they knew had hit hard times. I am happy to say that we were able to provide bikes and helmets for all that asked and the joy and gratitude of those who received bikes was real and, at times, pulled at heartstrings. I will not forget the relief and joy in the single mother's eyes who hugged me and told me that it was the best gift her 4 year old will have ever received.
We are especially proud of the usage of your donation dollars. Due to the generosity of all of our volunteers' time and donated resources, we were able to utilize 95% of all donations to buy bicycles for the kids! Rest assured, your dollars were not used for administrative costs or frivolous expenses. We bought 450 bikes this year! I want you to know that you can safely imagine that you alone created a smile or two for a child on Christmas morning!
Speaking of our generous volunteers, special thanks goes out to all that joined us on December 10, 2005! We assembled over 400 bikes that day in approximately 6 hours and the enthusiasm and diligence of our assembly team made it a super success! Over 350 hours of labor were donated to the TurningWheels cause at our first annual assembly day. A special thanks goes out to Jeff Burnham from Chase Lithography & Printing and Prima Mail for providing us storage for the bikes and the site to assemble them. In addition to the contributions of our board members and their families, our volunteers included the Boy Scouts of America Scout Unit 237, Scout Unit 236, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, A & A Auto Service employees and families, members of ROMP (Responsible Off-road Mountain Peddlers) and Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition. And a big thank you to Posh Bagel and Costco in Almaden for their contributions of bagels and pizza that kept these folks fed.
And I cannot forget to mention a big thank you to Valley Health Plan for their most generous contribution of 450 bike helmets. Because they found a way to donate all the helmets, we were able to use all the donated money to buy shiny new bikes. And then members of this group went to the San Jose Shelter a few days after Christmas and provided bikes and helmet safety information. I can't imagine what we would do without volunteers such as this.
