Bourne Fifth Grader Fixing Discarded Bikes For Kids Without Wheels

By: Diana T. Barth
Published: 12/21/12

About 30 children will be receiving bicycles for Christmas thanks to the efforts of 10-year-old Cataumet resident Logan T. Hawkes, with a little help from his grandfather.

Logan’s grandfather, Mashpee Selectman Thomas O’Hara, said that Logan had frequently accompanied him to Mashpee’s transfer station. One time this fall, Mr. O’Hara said, Logan asked, “So Grampy, if you wanted to take something from the dump, could you just take it?”

Mr. O’Hara asked Logan what prompted the question, and Logan said he had noticed a couple of discarded bikes and wondered if he could take them home and fix them up.

Mr. O’Hara’s first response was to say that Logan had a brand-new bicycle and to ask him why he would want them.

Logan replied that he would like to fix them up and give them to children who did not have bikes.

The Bourne Middle School 5th grader, the son of Adam D. and Kristi F. Hawkes, said he had begun noticing the number of discarded bikes far earlier than that conversation.

Before he, himself, had been given a new bike, he said, he had been thinking about fixing one up for himself.

He said his bike is important to him, so he was troubled thinking about children who wanted a bike, but whose families could not afford to give them one. That is when he asked his grandfather if they could take and fix up the unwanted bicycles.

Mr. O’Hara liked the idea, so he made arrangements for the transfer station to be a collection point for donated bikes that were fixable. Any donations that were beyond repair, he said, would be just more recyclable material for the town, he said.

Logan, who said he had worked on his own bikes “a couple of times” before, reported that most of the bikes just needed paint, but that some needed brakes and other parts. He and his grandfather went out and bought those parts, driving as far away as Hyannis to find what they needed, he said.

Then, he said, they “fix ‘em up.”

Mr. O’Hara said that before he and Logan began their work, he called Ruth W. Provost, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Cape Cod, to see if there could be a way to identify youngsters who needed bikes.

Ms. Provost said, “Absolutely.”

The bikes began filling his garage, Mr. O’Hara said. His wife, he said, found a new space for them to work. Kevin P. Andrade donated work and storage space at Mashpee’s Summerfield Park.

About 30 bikes have been repaired.

Logan said he and his grandfather have lined up a number of volunteers to help distribute them. 

Mr. O’Hara quoted Logan’s reaction to seeing all of the finished bikes: “There’s going to be a lot of happy boys and girls.”

 

1 Responses to "Bourne Fifth Grader Fixing Discarded Bikes For Kids Without Wheels"

1. Willout says: 12/21/12
   

   This is heart warming. It's great to see people giving back to their community. I hope people are encouraged to practice bike safety. A lot of sites like http://2wheelbikes.com/resource.html offer great info.