My name is Sydney Walsh and I play for the U12 Orange team. For my community service project, my family and I helped the organization Turning Wheels for Kids make bikes for underprivileged kids for Christmas. Turning Wheels for Kids provides children with brand new bikes to encourage life long habits of exercise and outdoor activity.
My family and I went to the Pleasanton Fairgrounds, where we would build the bikes. The goal was to make 750 bikes. My mom and I were paired with an adult I didn’t know. Luckily, he was an expert on bike building so we had a good partner. We had to put the bike together, pump up the tires, and then roll it over to the Quality Control center. Quality Control checks the bikes to make sure that they are perfect for the kids. The bikes were then loaded onto trucks were they were driven to a warehouse. Then local charities will pick them up and give them to kids in need. My group made 20 bikes out of the 750 bikes that entire group made.
Spending time on my project showed me that giving my time to help others is really important and that I made at least 20 kids really happy. It was fun to meet new people as we worked together. I learned how to communicate with people I had just met and work together to achieve the goal of 750 bikes. I had a lot of fun and I can only imagine the kids smiling faces on Christmas Day.
