Trek Bicycle employees of Waterloo, Wis., finished the mass build Monday to ship bikes of various sizes to its metro shop, Schlegel Bicycles.
Steve Schlegel, who owns the store at 900 N. Broadway, had contacted the Waterloo, Wis., company shortly after the storms to inquire about a sizable bike donation for kids.
Trek bikes are normally shipped in pieces, so Schlegel needed the manpower of the Wisconsin headquarters’ 200 workers to send fully constructed bikes to the shop, according to Eric Bjorling of Trek. He said employees donated at least an hour of their time to build the bicycles.
“Everybody here [at Trek] has the shared experience of being a kid and having a bike and the sense of fun and freedom that that brought,” he said. “We just wanted to make sure every kid in Oklahoma didn’t miss out on that experience.”
Schlegel contacted the YMCA of Oklahoma City, which has been hosting camps for children impacted by May’s deadly storms, to coordinate the distribution.
“We truly believe this may brighten the hopes of some of the children affected,” Schlegel said.
