2023 Parade Marshal

The cost of repairing/refurbishing each
​bike and providing a helmet averages $25 (per FB4K national). 

With West Virginia’s growing emphasis on outdoor recreation as an economic driver, it is important to get children attached to outdoor activities like bicycling. Physical activity not only offers health benefits, but improves
self-esteem, increases mental well-being, and reduces depression.
People who bike together build social bonds through shared interests.

Volunteering with FB4K will let interested youth learn skills in bike repair/maintenance; if interested, they can continue to develop vocational
skills through Youth Cycling Coalition partner Project Bike Tech,
which will offer a 2-year training program in bike repair and
maintenance for juniors/seniors in Morgantown.​

“We take bicycles from the community and
​refurbish and redistribute them in the community.”

Free Bikes 4 Kidz WV is a non-profit organization geared toward helping all kids ride into a happier, healthier childhood by providing bikes to those most in need. The public donates gently used bikes, we organize thousands of volunteers to clean and refurbish them, and then we give them away to kids in need.

The national Free Bikes 4 Kidz (FB4K) organization was born in 2008, as a one-time hobby in a two-car garage. A group of passionate cyclists collected, refurbished, and gave away 250 bikes over a two-week period. Since then that hobby has grown to become the largest organization of its kind in the country. It now collects, fixes, and donates bikes in 22 markets/cites and is growing rapidly (https://fb4k.org).

FB4K is one of ten partner organizations part of Morgantown’s Youth Cycling Coalition (YCC) pilot city program (https://youthcyclingcoalition.org/pilot-program/). Morgantown is the national pilot for the Youth Cycling Coalition, which seeks to benefit underserved groups especially.

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