ROTARIANS ASSEMBLE AND DISTRIBUTE BICYCLES AT DISTRICT CONFERENCE

Rotarians from District 7490 on April 29 assembling one of 10 bicycles that were distributed later that day to children in Baltimore.

Rotarians from clubs in Bergen, Hudson and Passaic Counties, meeting last month at District 7490’s annual conference, assembled 10 bicycles which later that day, they presented to children whose families would otherwise have been unable to afford them.

In perhaps the first service project ever conducted at a district conference, Rotarians on April 29, guided by instructions from the manufacturer, put the bicycles together at the beginning of the day’s plenary, that is, general meeting. The front wheel of a bicycle that had already been assembled and which was on display as a model was inverted, a mistake which was not repeated on the 10 bicycles they assembled.

With District Governor Peter Wells presiding later that afternoon, Rotary presented the bicycles to the families of 10 children who were to receive them. The families had been selected by a lottery that had been conducted by a local YMCA.

Speaking the next day (April 30) of the presentation, Governor Peter told of the gratitude of one man, the father of two children who were presented with bicycles. The father, in tears, Governor Peter said, had told him that he himself could not have afforded to buy his children the $85.00 bicycles with which they were presented.