BOCA RATON, Fla. — Helmet? Check
Kneepads? Check
Lights? Check
Bells? Check
Reflectors? Check
All of the things that kids need to start riding a bike are going to be provided to 120 new kindergartners thanks to the Bikes for Tikes program at Boca West Children's Foundation.
Learning to ride a bike comes with a few scraped knees but can provide kids with confidence and physical and mental strength. But if you don't have a bike, you might miss that right of passage.
Thanks to the Bikes for Tikes program at the Fuller Center, 120 kindergartners will be provided their bikes on Friday.
The bikes were purchased by Boca West Children's Foundation through their Bikes for Tikes program and given to Fuller Center.
"You think about bicycles, they do so much for the kids, build confidence, independence, also muscle mass and bone density," Jamie Serino, the senior director of Philanthropy, Fuller Center.
"The Fuller Center is a community center that meets the needs of our hard-working essential people in our community, who really provide all the services and that we count on our nurses, our firefighters, you know, our delivery people, the orderlies in our hospitals, all the people that we count on every day are the people who, who we serve," Ellyn Okrent, the CEO of the Fuller Center, said. "Not only do we provide early childhood education, and an elementary school, and after school and summer camp, and out of school time services, we also provide teen leadership, and we provide a holistic service to meet the needs of all those families who count on us. And those families that we count on."
Okrent said there are still spaces for the center's fall semester and provide care at low, lower and no cost depending on a family's circumstances.