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Trips For Kids Builds Mountain Bike Training Trail Spring 2006
By Doreen Berne
Ben Applebaum Foundation Quarterly
Spring 2006, Issue XXIV, Copyright © 2006
Trips For Kids; Biking Makes A Difference
August 2005
Trips For Kids (TFK's), is a non-profit organization that takes underprivileged
kids on mountain bike outings. The idea is to provide outdoor and environmental
education for the kids while showing them a great time. These adventures teach
them how to be safe and responsible on a powerful vehicle while realizing their
full potential.
Most of these kids are from homeless shelters or orphanages and have never been
on a mountain bike before. The organization provides a course of basic skills to
prepare the children for their ride. They offer a fun environment where the kids
can be carefree and stress-free without worrying about where their next meal is
coming from or where they are going to sleep.
Deneen Tromba, Executive Director/President of TFK's explains why she became
involved with the organization --- "Cycling has always been a big part of my life.
I can still remember, as a child, first learning how to ride a bike. To this day,
whenever I am on my bike, I am instantly transported back in time to a place that
has always provided me with a tremendous feeling of happiness. The first time I
rode a mountain bike was 12 years ago in Oregon, on a trail that ran parallel to
a river alongside the prettiest mountains I have ever seen. I was hooked. The
freedom of being on two wheels combined with another great love of mine, the
great outdoors. It's pure heaven and it's this same feeling and experience I
would be honored to share with the children and volunteers of Trips for Kids.
It is also my hope that through sharing these experiences with the children of
Trips for Kids they too can find within themselves peace, happiness, and a greater
appreciation and respect for the world around us. I too was an at-risk
child/teenager and through all those many difficult times it was cycling that
helped me deal with the most adverse of situations. Cycling always managed to
put things into perspective. In addition, it has been my experience that when a
child, no matter the age, has someone they can relate to, someone who shares and
understands their struggles, they learn to trust.
We, hopefully, can help in
turning their lives around." Deneen recruited Peter Walsh, now a director on the
board of TFK's because of his knowledge of the environment and his passion for
mountain biking. He also has an extensive background in working with at-risk,
underprivileged kids. Peter explains how the kids when they come are often shy
and stand-offish. But as soon as they start riding, their barriers come tumbling
down. "There are the boys who put on the tough-guy act and as soon as they get
in the woods and see something like a caterpillar they shriek like a little girl"
Peter laughingly describes. "This is all worthwhile when you see a child smile.
It is those little moments when you know your making a difference in a kid's
life. Making connections with these kids is so rewarding."
With mountain biking as the vehicle, the kids experience first hand the excitement
of achievement, enabling them to realize their full potential. Peter says "The
big thing for us is the need for volunteers to help out with the rides. I also
think that it goes with out saying that we always need donations, be it cash,
bikes, time, people who can help maintain our fleet of bikes, people who can
help with the endless grant writing, etc." For most of the children we deal
with, it can be their first time in the woods, and, for some, this becomes one
of the few times that they can just be kids."
By Leslie Rice Hart
BeautyNewsNYC.com
Metro Mama/Metro Baby
Biking Event Honors WTC Victim
June 2, 2002
 The
three West Hempstead teenagers who carpooled yesterday to Cedar Creek
Park in Wantagh for a group bike ride never met Manhattan broker
Anthony Gallagher.
They
didn't know he grew up in Brightwaters, graduated from Bay Shore High
School and loved to ride his bike in Central Park and in local races.
They also didn't know he worked at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th floor
of the North Tower of the World Trade Center until Sept. 11.
On a
warm spring day, they helped pay tribute to the man they'd never met as
they rode mountain bikes along trails to Jones Beach.
"Yeah,
I'm excited," Robert, 15, said before the ride, wondering whether he
had the physical endurance to finish the trip. "It's a new experience."
 The
event was a way to remember her husband, who would have turned 42
Friday, what was special about him and important to him, said Carrie
Gallagher, a former Suffolk prosecutor who works for a Manhattan law
firm.
"This incorporates the bikes and the outdoors and the kids," said Gallagher, 38, now of Hoboken, N.J. "I think it's wonderful."
The
day of bike riding was made possible by Trips for Kids Metro New York,
the new local arm of a national nonprofit organization that provides
bicycle outings, environmental education and job skills for young
people who otherwise might not be exposed to such activities.
Organizers say they use the outdoors, bikes and just plain fun to
stress important life skills, such as personal responsibility and
achievement.
Robert
and his companions, Travis, 16, and Terrence, 15, who live in a group
home, gathered at a park shelter with Trips for Kids volunteers and
Gallagher's family and friends to dedicate the bikes before their
maiden ride.
During
the ceremony, the 10 new bikes rested against a tree tied together with
red-white-and-blue ribbon. Five were donated to Trips for Kids in
Gallagher's name by relative Sue Kan Whitaker of San Francisco.
The
Rev. Dallas Decker, of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in
Seaford, led the gathering in scripture readings and prayer, offered a
blessing and then sprinkled the bikes with holy water. "And until we
meet again," he concluded, "may the Lord hold you and your bicycles in
the palm of his hand."
The
occasion was bittersweet for Tony Gallagher's sisters, Carolyn
Gallagher, 33, of Manhattan, and Suzanne Adams, 43, of Rye, who
attended the dedication with their mother, Rose Costello, 66, of West
Bay Shore, as well as other relatives and friends.
"Carrie's
right. He loved his bicycle. He loved to race, and he loved to ride,"
Adams said of Gallagher's wife. "It's a wonderful tribute to Tony. The
hardest thing for me is ..." She paused momentarily, tears rimming her
eyes. "It's hard to let him go."
By Pat Burson - Staff Writer
Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.
Trips For Kids Goes National
TRIPS
FOR KIDS is expanding to help start independent Trips for Kids rides
programs across the country and Canada. Currently we have 18 affiliate
chapters helping children across the US and Canada. The goal for this
expansion is to take this unique outdoor experience and its
life-enhancing lessons to as many kids as possible.
The
problems of inner city children are not limited to the San Francisco
Bay Area. Neither are the joys of bike riding limited to Marin County.
Trips for Kids plans to take its benefits on a national level, so that
more kids can learn the lesson that one boy expressed after a Trips for
Kids ride: "I learned that if I stick with it, I can make it to the
top."
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