The Great Bike Giveaway: Special Bikes for Special Needs

I believe I was seven when I got my first real two wheel bike. It was red with a white basket with flowers on it and streamers hanging from the Â handlebars. I was so excited to learn how to ride it!Â I can remember vividly, over 25 years later, riding that bike around my neighborhood with my friends and family. Unfortunately, children with special needs don’t always get the opportunity to experience these kinds of moments because of the limitations of their disabilities. So how AWESOME is it that the Friendship Circle’s Â Great Bike GiveawayÂ can give children with special needs the opportunity to feel the wind in their hair while riding their very own adapted bike!?

For the third consecutive year Friendship Circle, whose special needs blog I contribute to monthly, Â is holding the Great Bike Giveaway, a national contest giving away adaptive bikes to children with special needs. They are partnering with Freedom Concepts, Rifton, Buddy Bike, Ambucs, Triaid,Flaghouse, Mobo Cruisers and Strider Bikes to give away adaptive bikes to children and young adults with special needs. I am so very excited to share with you all about this awesome cause.

Why The Great Bike Giveaway?

As I stated earlier, many children with special needs miss out on the childhood joy of bike riding because their physical or cognitive limitations make riding a bicycle near impossible. The Great Bike Giveaway will give children and young adults with special needs the chance to win an adaptive bike and have the feeling of pride, freedom and confidence that bike riding brings.

How The Contest Works

Adaptive bikes are tailored to a childâ€™s needs. To meet the needs of the recipients in this contest, a separate contest is held for each bike type. The contest starts with two bikes of each type and money is raised to add more bikes as the contest progresses. Last year the Great Bike Giveaway ran 6 different contests and gave away a total of 29 bikes! This year we hope to give away 75 bikes to individuals with special needs.

Each bike page has a space where users can enter the contest. Submit a picture of your child with special needs along with a short explanation of why your child needs an adaptive bike.

From the winner of a Parent: Judd, received his Rifton tricycle that he won through your bike giveaway. He loves it so much. His first time out with it , he pedaled .75 miles! Everyone at the track had a smile on their faces watching him enjoy his bike. The biggest smile there belonged to him though.

Two Ways to Win

Most Votes:Â One bike in each contest will be given away to the entry with the most nominations. Nominations are received from friends and family clicking the â€œnominate buttonâ€ on an entrants submission

Bike Raffle:Â All the remaining bikes will be placed in a drawing. To be eligible for the drawing each submission must be nominated by at least 50 friends and family members.

How You Can Help

There are many ways you can help children with special needs win a bike! Here are some:

1. Donate To Add More Bikes

In addition to the bikes that have been sponsored, Individuals have the ability to donate to the Great Bike Giveaway to get more bikes added. Every time the donation meter is filled another bike gets added to the drawing! To donate, go to the sponsor page, click on the “contest page” button of the bike you’d like to donate toward, and then make your donation to help fund MORE bikes for MORE children and young adults with special needs! I just donated!

ANDâ€¦..if you donate $100 or more, you get this sweet tshirt!

Different is good shirt

2. Share and promote

The simplest way to help is to let as many people as possible know about the opportunity to win an adaptive bike by sharing the the contest via your social networks and email. You can also check out the resources page for additional tools you can use to share the contest.