WOLCOTT, Vt. (WCAX) - A student-run program at one Vermont school has become a pretty fun way to spend part of the day. They hope to ride success into the holiday season and beyond.
A little bit of early November weather isn’t putting the brakes on what nine fifth-graders are doing at Wolcott Elementary.
Reporter Scott Fleishman: What’s the best part of school for you?
Lydia Vanderwerf/Fifth grader: The Bike Busters.
Scott Fleishman: Why is that?
Lydia Vanderwerf: Because we get to like fix the bikes, then we get to test drive them.
Then they give them to their fellow students in need.
Vanderwerf led the way in forming the Bike Busters this year. She, along with a few other classmates, got the idea after noticing their guidance counselor, Kate Gascoyne, had collected some broken bicycles in her travels and left them in the school.
“They wanted to fix up the bikes and they wanted to ride the bikes and they wanted to see if other people wanted to donate bikes,” Gascoyne said.
So the Bike Busters set up a drop-off site where people can come by on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. They work on the bikes every Monday and Wednesday.
Scott Fleishman: How hard is it to fix the bikes?
Lydia Vanderwerf: It’s easy. Most of the bikes we just have to spray on the chain, because it’s not working right.
Scott Fleishman: A lot of the bikes you guys come across, is that usually the problem, the chain?
Lydia Vanderwerf: Yeah. Sometimes we also have to pump up the tires.
Kate Gascoyne: They’ve been teaching me. I just ask them what they need, put tools in their hands and they go for it. They’ve actually done quite an amazing job of fixing up some of the bikes.
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Scott Fleishman: So what is it about the Bike Busters that you really enjoy?
Logand Miller/Fifth grader: Riding bikes.
And they’re working toward creating trails around the school for longer test rides.
“I think it’s helping them find their own little confidence and their own little place in the school. Their enthusiasm, I think, has helped bring just a little more joy to the school,” Gascoyne said.
With the holiday season approaching, the Bike Busters are really putting on the pressure for more donations. They want to make sure that kids in their area, who aren’t able to have a bike, get one.
“Bring your bikes here. Wolcott Elementary School,” Miller said.
“We can give them the bikes for Christmas presents or something like that,” Vanderwerf said.
The Bike Busters. A project in which these young students, even through the snow, are finding balance between school, fun and kindness.
As for getting the bikes to those in need, Gascoyne says letters will likely go out to parents at the school, seeing if anyone is in need of one of the Bike Busters bikes.
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