Kate Koch made a decision several Christmases ago to do something special for kids in foster care. She wanted to give them bicycles. What started out as a loving gesture took on a life of it's own, and has since meant thousands of bikes have been given away. Kate shares her story of how she became the Bike Lady, and why she turned to local prisons to get help getting all those bikes made.
Kate is the founder of Bike Lady, Inc., which she formed in November 2008, as an impromptu holiday bike-a-thon. Bike Lady, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, charitable organization based in Columbus, Ohio with the mission to:
To enrich the daily life experience and expand opportunities of Ohio at-risk youth by providing new bikes, helmets, and locks to children who have a history of abuse, neglect, and abandonment, and are served by county child protective services (foster care placement). And, to provide Ohio inmate offenders a chance to give back through volunteer bike assembly and community service.
She can be reached at staff@bikelady.org. For more information about Bike Lady, visit www.bikelady.org, or stop by facebook.com/bikeladyinc. To learn more about how you can start your own Bike Lady or similar organization, check out https://bikelady.org/start-your-own
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Cover art photo by Gustavo Sousa on Unsplash
Music for this episode from https://filmmusic.io
"Roll The Intro" by Alexander Nakarada (https://www.serpentsoundstudios.com/) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
"Loopster" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
"Total Happy Up And Sunny" by Sascha Ende (https://www.sascha-ende.de) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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