State Sen. Marty Flynn looked across a warehouse on Friday, admiring rows of shiny new bicycles. Some had glistening silver streamers. Others had a Spiderman theme.
“Look at this,” he said. “Every single one of these bikes is going to go to a kid… So I'm pumped, really pumped.”
Area schools and community centers will soon pick up the more than 1,100 bikes from the warehouse in Throop, and then distribute them to children in need.
Flynn began helping to organize a bicycle giveaway 11 years ago, which then led to community volunteers creating a nonprofit organization, All About the Kids Bicycles Inc. This year’s total is the highest for the group, which has distributed about 6,000 bikes over the last 11 years. The group dedicated the giveaway this year to Patrick Solano, a community leader and political adviser who died in 2021.
The group raised about $120,000 for this year’s bikes, with assistance from businesses and individuals. Sean Bingham, of Bingers Maintenance and More, helps with logistics. He orders the bikes from Walmart, and picks them up when they’re delivered to the store and assembled. About 100 bikes can fit in a tractor trailer, and the volunteers work to move the bikes to the warehouse in Throop.
Bingham helped arrange the bikes on Friday. This summer, he knows he will see children ride those bikes in the region.
“It's gratifying to say the least,” he said. “We're going to keep going until there's no more to go, as far as I'm concerned.”
The giveaway is targeted for children in second through fourth grades, within Flynn's senate district in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties.
“When you're a little kid, when you get a bike, it's just the sense of freedom that it gives. Man, it's just so much pleasure,” Flynn said. “This is like my Christmas morning right now, seeing this. It's so awesome.
