BikeNet member Kathy Aragon and Billings Public School’s Homeless Liaison Sue Runkle recently submitted a winning idea to “Walk Bike To School,” and won ten Schwinn Bikes and 20 helmets for Billings youth. We now have four 20″ bikes and six 24″ bikes to be used as loaner bikes for our area’s 572 homeless  or at risk youth. The bikes will be available at The Center for Children and Families in downtown Billings.

The National Center for Safe Routes to School, the agency that coordinates  National Bike to School Day, in partnership with Schwinn’s Helmets on Heads program, has given away ten bicycles and twenty helmets to ten schools or student-focused community organizations that registered to participate in this year’s Bike to School Day event.

As these bikes are too small for teens, BikeNet and community partners (Safe Routes to School, Downtown Billings Association and BPS Homeless Liaison) are reaching out to our community to ask for bicycle donations for these young people living at Tumbleweed homes.  If you have an old bike you would like to donate, please contact Kathy Aragon at jenaragon@bresnan.net. Joe Stout, from Downtown Billings Association and BikeNet member Jeffrey Butts (who is also the City’s Alternate Modes Coordinator), will be assembling the new bikes and repairing those donated.

Bike Repairs and equipment for repairs are provided through the Billings Public School District repair trailer that was made possible through Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Funding.  The bike repair trailer has served several schools across the district   That funding source (SRTS) will no longer be available after the 2013-2014 school year, but we hope to explore ways to keep the repair service available for schools.