A reader brought to our attention a great story about the power of bicycles and how one person can make a difference.
The head custodian at Poynter Middle School in Hillsboro, John Sarrazin, has turned a chance encounter with a student who needed help fixing his bike into a full-fledged afterschool program. Here’s how a teacher at the school described to us how it all came about:
“Last year, a student was having trouble with fractions — and he needed work done on his bike. John taught him fractions while also teaching him how to fix his bike. Pretty soon, this student’s friends were bringing John their bikes, and he was teaching them how to fix them. And with that, the bike club was formed at my school. Now he has student crew leaders leading teams of students who are fixing up bikes and donating them to charity. We don’t have a Community Cycling Center in Washington County, so this is a pretty unique program…”
So unique in fact that Sarrazin’s efforts caught the attention of KATU-TV. They recently featured him on the evening news as one of their “Everyday Heroes.” Watch the video below…
Sarrazin donates his time and doesn’t charge students to join the club.
The Hillsboro School District says that the club has grown from eight kids last year to 50 this year. With more students to teach, the club needed more bikes; and that’s where this story gets even better… Poynter’s School Resource Officer (SRO) from the Hillsboro Police Department heard about the program and decided to donate an entire room full of unclaimed bikes from the police station.
It’s a great story and one that will hopefully inspire many others.