ROARING FORK BROADCASTING COMPANY
For two hours on a cold, rainy Friday afternoon, six employees of Umbrella Roofing and 10 or so other volunteers toiled to assemble 103 blue Huffy bicycles at Basalt Elementary School — knowing the payoff at the end would make the endeavor totally worthwhile.
The payout in this case was seeing the faces of the second-graders when they realized they were receiving free bikes. The volunteers helped the kids properly fit free bike helmets and made adjustments to the seats to make the young riders comfortable. Then the kids with riding experience got to climb in the saddle and pedal away to the grass playground and the volunteers would assist the beginners who were unsteady on two wheels.
The smiles were infectious. The kids zoomed around in every direction, Spectators needed to keep their head on a swivel.
“It’s total chaos. It’s awesome,” said Dave Spence, general manager of Umbrella Roofing, as he headed back to the assembly area to help launch another wave of bike riders.
His colleague David Briscoe, chief financial officer for Umbrella, was equally thrilled with the work. “Nothing changes life like a bike,” he said.
This was the ninth consecutive year that Umbrella Roofing founder and president Trevor Cannon has provided a donation to the nonprofit Wish for Wheels branch in Denver to make sure second-graders in the Roaring Fork Valley region received free bikes and helmets.
Cannon, an avid cyclist, said he learned of the program when a bicycle tour rolled through Carbondale one summer and stopped overnight. Wish for Wheels had a booth setup for the event. A financial donation and volunteer labor for build-and-give events fit perfectly with Umbrella’s philanthropy efforts and a steady relationship was formed. (See related story, Page 3.
“One year I know we gave almost 200 bikes to three different schools,” Cannon said. “I confirmed it with Wish for Wheels, this puts us well over a thousand that we’ve done.”
The Huffy Rock It single-speed bikes along with the helmets have risen in price from about $100 to $200 each over that period, so this year’s expenditure by Umbrella exceeded $20,000. It’s worth every penny to Cannon.
“It’s great, seeing the kids going like, ‘This is mine?’ And replying, ‘Yep, it’s yours,’” Cannon said.
A youngster by the name of Oswaldo was obviously amped up to start spinning on a bike. He even brought riding gloves for the occasion.
While the second-graders were zooming around the grass playground, older students with more cycling experience were negotiating courses complete with cones in a slalom course, a small ramp and other obstacles. Basalt Police officers and first responders with Roaring Fork Fire Rescue staffed the courses and kept the kids somewhat under control. Police officers provided safety information to the youngsters. Top riders had a chance to hone their skills with members of the Roaring Fork Cycling club.
“It’s a full community effort today,” said Desiree Pimentel, the outdoor-experiential education coordinator for the Basalt Education Foundation.
The various events had roughly 550 participants in kindergarten through fourth grade. The bike rodeo activities piggybacked onto the free bike giveaway. Pimentel said the goal is to make the Biking Day become an annual event.
She said there are 125 kids in second grade at Basalt. Of those, 22 had their own bikes and didn’t require one at Friday’s build-and-give event.
Cannon said his company helps with bicycle assembly at whatever local school is selected for the give-a-way. Anywhere from six to 12 employees from Umbrella enlist to assemble the bikes. The drivetrain is already assembled. The volunteers just need to attach handlebars and pedals and make adjustments when a rider finds a bike.
“The bikes come out of packages,” Cannon said. “We start having races” to see who can assemble them the fastest. “We can build a bike in like 50 seconds once we get warmed up.”
Janae Wadley, a build and give specialist with Wish for Wheels, was the taskmaster keeping the volunteer bike builders on track to deliver the 103 bikes at 1 p.m. She said another 68 bikes will go to second-graders in Aspen. The bikes were being dropped off for assembly at Aspen High School on Friday. They will be distributed on Monday.
The organization provided about 7,000 bikes to second graders across the county in 2023 and is on track to provide 9,000 this year, according to Wadely. Title 1 schools, where a high percentage of students from low-income families, are targeted.
Wadely said her favorite part of the job is “getting to just see their little faces light up.” She quickly added, “And I get to drive a big truck.”
Cannon said he envisions the bike give-a-way remaining a cornerstone of Umbrella Roofing’s philanthropic efforts for some time. It’s an important part of his company’s mission.
“I guess it’s kind of a holistic approach to doing business,” he said. “You show up and work your butts off, everybody’s working, working, working. And you realize you spend more time at work than with your wife and your kids. It’s probably more time than you spend sleeping and certainly more than with your friends. It’s about having a reason, a purpose to show up: What are you doing with this time?”