June has just ended. So, for most students, has the school year.
I recall how, in the old days, some kids tossed notebooks, pencils and rulers into the air as they dashed away from their school building. Do kids still do that? Somehow I have a hard time imagine them tossing laptops or tablets--or their phones--into the air.
One thing that probably hasn't changed is this: Kids leave school with visions of long days with friends, at the playground or the beach--or riding bikes. Maybe they'll ride their bikes to those places.
That is, if they have bikes.
David Yandell has long known that many kids don't have bikes because their families can't afford them. Over the past twenty years, he's distributed about 2000 bikes in Portland. In the beginning, he did his own fundraising, but some years back a local developer-turned- philanthropist named Homer Williams got wind of what Yandell was doing and became a partner in the program.
But, this year, Yandell and Williams discovered that, as the saying goes, there are some things money can't buy. In this case, it was the bikes themselves. Wal-Mart, normally one of their major sources, said it didn't have any bikes available for them. The reason is one we've heard since the early days of the pandemic: supply chain disruptions.
More than likely, there are now hundreds of similar bike-distribution programs across the US. While some may have been suspended, but most folks who undertake such work are dedicated. And, in Yandell's and William's case, savvy: Few, if any, such programs have operated for longer than theirs.
So far, they've acquired half of the 200 bikes they'd promised to kids. They worked their contacts, not only to find other sources, but to put pressure on Wal-Mart to come up with some bikes.
Turns out, their powers of persuasion are working. A Wal-Mart representative, citing the value of good community relations, said the company wants to help Yandell get what he needs and believes the bikes are available somewhere in the company's network.
Say what you will (and I would say a lot) about the Wal-Mart's policies and practices. I think they, or, at least, the representative, know that you don't let down folks like David Yandell because he knows there are some things money can't buy--like the feeling of being a kid (or a grown-up) riding a bike on a summer day.
