There was no crying Tuesday when I donated a purple Schwinn Predator to the Sharing Wheels Community Bike Shop. There were lots of memories of that little bike, but no tears.
Its owner, my daughter Jane, is 32 now. She has two little boys. Her firstborn, not quite 4, is already pedaling his own two-wheeler — without training wheels. He learned on one of those gliding balance bikes, something his mom never had when she rode around and around our north Everett block on her purple bike. Her training wheels stayed on until she was good and ready to negotiate the sidewalk without them.
The little Schwinn was her fifth birthday present in 1988. When I let her know it was destined to be refurbished at Sharing Wheels, an Everett nonprofit, and would be one of about 100 bikes being given to children this season through Everett’s Christmas House, I worried some about her reaction.
Her boys wouldn’t want that purple girl’s bike, but maybe she still did. Her bike had been tucked away in my basement for decades. Her reaction, which arrived by text Tuesday morning, was a relief: “I don’t mind at all, that sounds like a great thing.”
It is great, a wonderful local holiday tradition.
“We’ve been around since 2002,” said Kristi Knodell, the bike shop manager at Sharing Wheels. In 2014, she said, 105 bikes refurbished at the shop were donated to Christmas House. The longtime Everett charity will open its doors at the Everett Boys &Girls Club on Dec. 3 to provide children’s gifts for families in need.
Knodell said this year’s goal is 100 bikes for Christmas House. Needed are bikes like Jane’s old one, single-speed kids’ bicycles in good condition. Knodell took a look at the purple Schwinn Tuesday and said it will get new tires and maybe a new seat and hand grips.
Christmas House, she said, provides helmets with each bike it gives.
Bikes may be donated at Sharing Wheels during open hours, 1-6 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and at three work parties where helpers of all skill levels — shop mechanics to polishers — are needed. The work parties are Wednesday evening, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, and the evening of Dec. 2. Helpers don’t need tools, and on Sunday a lunch will be provided by Sharing Wheels.
After the holidays, Sharing Wheels gears up for another big giveaway. In June each year, there’s a bike swap at the shop, which is located at 2531 Broadway near North Middle School. Knodell said the shop sometimes gets back bikes it gave away as kids outgrow them. A Sharing Wheels sticker lets her know if a bike was fixed up there.
Christmas House serves qualifying low-income Snohomish County families. Parents are able to pick age-appropriate gifts free of charge for their children, infants to 18-year-olds. In 2014, the volunteer organization provided more than 55,700 gifts to 8,970 children from 3,060 families.
My Christmas will be merrier this year knowing that the bike my daughter loved won’t be collecting dust in our basement. It will again be ridden by a child excited to get it as a gift.
There’s another little bike in my basement, a boy’s model. That one, I’ll keep for visiting grandsons.
I’ll never forget a new bike, the coolest red Schwinn three-speed, that was under our Christmas tree in Spokane when I was in fifth grade. I loved that bike and still have pictures of it. Knodell didn’t get a new bicycle until she saved her money and bought her own 10-speed.
“I always got my brother’s hand-me-down,” she said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Bikes needed
Sharing Wheels Community Bike Shop needs donations of single-speed children’s bikes in good condition. Bikes will be refurbished and taken to Christmas House, another Everett nonprofit, to be given as gifts for families in need. Drop off bikes during open hours, 1-6 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, or at work parties.
Helpers of all skill levels are needed at three work parties: 6-9 p.m. Wednesday Nov. 18, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Nov. 22 (lunch provided), and 6-9 p.m. Dec. 2. Sharing Wheels is at 2531 Broadway (entrance in alley), Everett. Information: 425-252-6952 or www.sharingwheels.org.
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