In August the MassBike team was contacted by a mom in the Worcester area whose 10-year-old daughter, K, wanted to learn to ride a bike.

After many attempts to coordinate a riding session at a neighboring park, I started my adventure for the first time volunteering to teach a child how to ride a bike. I had done this before with adults, but never with a child.  

In the beginning, it was not easy. K was afraid of failing and falling. Up to this point, family members had tried to teach her before, without success. After the first session, I noticed that a different bike might help her. I contacted Nate Lewis at Worcester Earn-A-Bike, who patiently heard my story and said that he was pretty sure he could find a bike at the shop that would fit K. 

Soon after, Nate texted me back with a photo of a bike that would do the job! Words cannot express how grateful I was to Nate for taking the time to find the bike. He even delivered it to my house in record time.

For the next session with K and her mom, I showed up at the park riding the smaller bike. While on my way to the park, I could see the drivers’ faces on Mill Street, looking at me and probably thinking that the bike was not appropriate for my height and age!

K was thrilled with her new second-hand bike. By pure coincidence, Nate had chosen a bike that was K’s favorite color, turquoise. We started our session and I saw that the bike was going to help. K was still very nervous and afraid of falling. Her mom would watch us from a distance with the patience and dedication that only a mom could show. K’s mother wanted to pay for the bike. I asked them if, instead, they could stop by WEAB with a donation and a thank-you card for Nate. Within a week, they did. Nate was touched!

The progress was slow, some sessions were more challenging than others. There were some setbacks, until, one of those days, K started crying. She was ready to give up because she thought couldn’t ride. I wasn’t. I knew that, so long as we kept trying, it might take longer, but she was going to ride. That day, I said to her that I was not going to abandon her, that riding was going to take a little longer, but that it was going to happen. Her mom was there to reassure her, too. I also told her that even if the three of us had to get together in our parkas, gloves, hats and mittens, we were going to continue with our sessions until she did so!

I noticed that after that day, the following sessions were easier. She still wasn’t riding, but her fears were diminishing and her determination was getting stronger. I could feel that her day to experience the freedom of riding her bike was getting closer!

One Sunday at the end of October, while holding her seat, she took off and rode her bike for the first time towards her mom, who was sitting at the opposite side of the park from where we were. For the first time, she left me in the dust! Watching them from a distance, I saw them hugging each other, celebrating that K got her ‘riding wings’. After hugging her mom, K turned around, and started running towards me. She was beaming! She hugged me and thanked me in the kind and loving way that only kids can do!

Her mom was waiting and the three of us hugged one another. After many attempts, what her mom had told her came true. Persistence paid off. K and her mom said that they had something for me in their car. I said I did, too. I had promised K that I was going to give her a similar pair of bike earrings to the ones I wore at every session with her, because she said she really liked them!

We exchanged gifts like it was Christmas in October! Then they mentioned that, while I wasn’t around, a couple had come to them with tears in their eyes. They had witnessed the whole thing, including the magic moment when K took off. They were so happy for her and for her mom. I guess it’s true that we never know when we’re touching lives!

K, her mom, and I continued meeting to help her improve her biking skills. We met on the Mill Street Parking Protected Bike Lanes until after Thanksgiving, when the cold and windy weather didn’t allow us to continue. The last time we met, K (who happens to love Legos) showed up with a gift for me. She had made a version of me riding a bike in Legos! There I was, riding my bike, with my red coat and my glasses.

I hope you enjoyed my story as much as I did. I believe we need stories like this more than ever. Bicycles are instruments of social change, as Galen said to me when we met in person for the first time in Worcester in March of 2022. I’ve been so fortunate to witness a lot of stories of how bikes build community, help people to feel like they belong and more importantly, change lives for the better.

It takes a village to do what we do. And we wouldn’t be able to do what we do without your generosity. If you can, please help us with your donation so we can continue transforming something ordinary like riding a bike into something extraordinary. Thank you for being part of that awesome village!

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