We held our September BASH last Saturday and it was a blast. 20 kids rolled away on refurbished bikes, in addition to participating in our traffic safety program. In addition to a bicycle, they were also given a bike lock, bike lights as well as an awesome new helmet, thanks to our community partners Primary Health.

We owe a huuuuuge thanks to Primary Health! They have supplied helmets for every single one of our youth bike recipients this year, totalling 169 kids at our BASH bike giveaways, as well as 146 Teen bicycle recipients. They will also be assisting with helmets for our 2021 Holiday Kids Bike Giveaway. Finally, they have been instrumental in promoting and helping set up our Primary Health 4th Annual Bike Drive (which is this Saturday, the 18th!!). We are so thankful to have an awesome community partner like Primary Health that is so willing to support our young people in our city!

We also owe a huge thanks to our awesome BASH volunteer crew, which has been consistently showing up to help on the second Saturday of each month. Our volunteer community is so incredibly enthusiastic and giving and it makes every one of these events feel like a party.

Lastly, I wanted to share a moment that I think illustrates the magic of our BASH giveaways. As safety training is winding down, I usually ask a few of the more confident young cyclists if they want to go for a ride around the neighborhood. A young woman named Rishiki had already been asking me over and over and over "Can we go on a real bike ride?".

As we assemble to go on the neighborhood ride, she is cutting to the front of the line. While we are riding to Ann Morrison park, her refrain changes to "Is this the way home?!?". When we enter the park and we get to the closed off road, I begin to take our single file line of bicycles into a large loop-de-loop, spinning circles in the grass. As we spin around, Riziki's tune changes, and she begins giggling, then laughing out loud. Soon we all follow her lead, giggling and spinning through the park on our bicycles on a beautiful day.

If you are interested in helping out at our October BASH, look for a sign up on Volunteer Local in the coming weeks, or email devin@boisebicycleproject.org.

-Devin