2020 INVITATION - It's all because of you!

Bikes are back! I am pleased to announce Bike Lady Season 13 has arrived! In honor of St. Valentine, we are kicking off the Season of BIKE Love during the month of love. 

THIS IS AN EXCITING TIME FOR BIKE LADY. We are reorganizing, refocusing, and building capacity and legacy so that we can serve more kids than ever before, and for many years to come. We haven’t made an official fundraising appeal since 2017, still, we’ve been busy!

BIKE LADY HIGHLIGHTS

• From 2008 to 2019, we served well over 11,000 foster youth reaching ALL 88 Ohio counties while partnering with 11 prisons. All volunteer organization
• We updated the website, and new content rolls out each month
• We expanded our Board including new Chair Shadya Yazback
• We apply/secure numerous grants to continually cover operating costs
• We have a new Executive Director! Please welcome Michelle Hendricks
• We are developing new volunteer opportunities
• We are re-evaluating programming:
  • Surveying counties to ensure we utilize resources wisely to serve youth the best way AND at the best time possible
  • Continuing our monthly RIDE OUT program with teenage inmates convicted as adults serving time in an adult prison
  • Partnering with numerous Ohio prisons providing community service opportunities for offenders

We will soon share details about each of these items. Right now, we just want to give kids in foster care their first new bike – 2,020 of them – and deliver at least half of them by springtime!

No problem, right?

That’s our goal this year - to serve 2,020 youth in Ohio foster care during Year 2020. Starting now. Today. This second. If we can do it, then it will be our greatest year. But we need YOU!

A February kick-off? Why now? Social workers tell us that while they love Christmas bikes, kids want bikes in the SPRING – warm weather, green grass, and sun splashing on their young faces. The kids want a chance at normalcy – to be like all the other kids on the block, out riding a bike.

Renewal. Repair. Growth. Spring. It’s the season of HOPE. And that’s the perfect season for us.

That means NOW is when we must place our Huffy order and quickly assemble the bikes to make a spring delivery possible. It’s near Valentine’s Day. Please share your love!

Skip the chocolate. Skip the roses. And GIVE BIKE LOVE instead! This is it. This our big annual 2020 #bikelove campaign. We need your funding starting right now.

It takes $100+ to provide each child a new bike, helmet, and lock. It’s a big goal to serve 2,020 kids, but with your help we can do it. 

You’re TEAM BIKE LADY and you SHOW UP!

How many kids will YOU put on bikes? If it’s a Valentine gift, we will share your message of love on all our social media channels. We can call your soulmate to announce your gift. We can text your crush and share your love. We’ll ride our own bike over to propose marriage on your behalf! Even if it snows. Just tell us what it takes for you to generously share #bikelove.

Your gift matters because foster care is hard. Kids don't do anything wrong to enter the system. They are in foster care because someone has extensively hurt, neglected, or rejected them. Bikes hold promise. You fundamentally alter the trajectory of Ohio foster youth when you give to Bike Lady. When asked what their new bikes mean to them, the kids always say, "It means someone cares what happens to me. Someone loves me. It means hope.” 

Springtime.

Simultaneously, our prison assembly program gives purposeful opportunity for inmates trying to make amends and achieve atonement, realizing who they were does not need define who they are becoming. Volunteering stirs empathy and compassion in the hearts of offenders.

Every bike you give changes at least two lives, giving a measure of freedom and well-being to both.

Please roll with us to achieve 2,020 for 2020. It’s soon Valentine’s Day. Can you give away some Bike Love today? I hope your answer is, “YES! YES! YES!” It's a bike. So simple, yet so powerful. Bike Love starts with you. 

Please DONATE ONLINE!

Or mail a check to Bike Lady, Inc., PO Box 311, Blacklick, OH 43004

Bike Lady is a 501(c)(3) charity. Donations are tax-deductible as applicable by law

From my home to yours, Happy Valentine’s Day!

Love, Kate
 

Kate Koch | Founder & Board of Directors
PO Box 311 Blacklick, OH 43004  |  T: 614.946.6463
Email: staff@bikelady.org   |  Web: www.bikelady.org