Preparing for Christmas this July
Today we welcome a message and an ask for help from our 2017 Program of the Year award recipient, 7th Day ReCYCLEry:
Since 2008, Rusty’s Bicycle Recycle (formerly – 7th Day ReCYCLEry) has been partnering with local Central Florida Charities. We partner with many charities, that primarily serve the homeless, with our donations. Our motto for supporting this cause is, “Giving the homeless a lift one bike at a time!” We also assist charities and foundations that serve foster children in Central Florida. [More about the mission and services @ https://rustysbicyclerecycle.org/wordpress/]
This year we have been partnering with Jordan’s Sporting Goods Store, run by the Jordan Smelski Foundation for Amoeba Awareness (http://www.jordansmelskifoundation.org/). Steve and Shelly Smelski started the foundation in honor of their son who died on July 2, 2014 at the age of eleven from PAM (Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis).
The foundation’s primary focus is to promote global awareness, to work with healthcare organizations and the Center of Disease Control (CDC) to change how PAM is diagnosed/treated, and to fund research. Jordan always worried that some children would not receive gifts at Christmas, so we opened Jordan’s Sporting Goods Store for a 2-day give-away in December. Last Christmas, we had over 500 children, ages 1-18, receive something from the store. We gave away 139 bikes, 52 scooters and 43 skateboards, all with new helmets and many other sporting goods.
For this year, Rusty’s Bicycle Recycle has pledged 200 refurbished children’s bicycles for the Jordan’s Sporting Goods Store. The foundation also collects several new bike donations.
We need your help! We would like to have each child that selects a bicycle as their Christmas present to receive a new helmet fitted to them along with some safety information for their parents. Bike/Walk of Central Florida (BWCF) has agreed to help fit these new helmets (https://bikewalkcentralflorida.org/) and provide the safety information, but we need the 250 to 300 new bicycle helmets. Help!
New Helmets from Safekids.org and Bell/Giro cost $8-9 per helmet; that’s a need of $2,500-$2,700 to cover costs. Donations may be made to the Jordan Smelski Foundation. To Direct your donation to this cause, please add a comment to your donation of “Bikes, Helmets or sporting goods supplies”. The Jordan Smelski Foundation is a 501(C)(3) organization and all donations are tax deductible.
Thank you for helping us serve this compassionate charity!
– Russ Durham and Steve Smelski
To contact either foundation, please visit Rusty’s Bicycle Recycle and Jordon Smelski Foundation.
Do you enjoy bicycle stories? Our quarterly Messenger newsletter is available online for your internet reading pleasure, just visit the FBA website Home page . Want a hard copy of our Messenger? FBA members have the Messenger delivered to their door every quarter. Join Florida Bicycle Association or visit one of our bicycle shop members to pick up a copy and use the membership form inside to join!
