History
The bike program was originally sponsored by Reno Sunrisers Kiwanis, dedicated solely to providing refurbished bikes to at-risk youth in the community. In 2001, the Sparks club expanded the program to include teaching young people about responsible bike ownership. The program expanded from an approximately $5000 per year program providing about 100 bikes per year to schools and organizations to the current nearly $100,000 operation serving over 6000 youth and donating over 1100 bikes in the community. Our over 40 volunteers rely heavily on donations from individuals, businesses and organizations for the over 3000 bike donations each year that make this possible. All bikes are donated with a helmet, and helmet safety is an integral part of our programs.
Specialties
The Kiwanis Bike Program is a service project of the Kiwanis Club of Downtown Sparks. We are dedicated to providing bicycling education to youth and young adults. This includes bike riding education and bike repair education. In addition we donate bikes that have been refurbished by our participants to youth programs and schools in the community. This is supported through sales of approximately 20% of the bikes donated by the community. Bikes that cannot be made totally street-worthy are used for Burning Man bikes on the playa. Our web site is www.kiwanisbikes.org or phone is 775-337-1717 for more information.